Kaze no Uchiha
by Camimari
Summary: Follow Aya, a highly unusual Uchiha. But then, she IS adopted and not merely for her rather unique could-be kekkei genkai either, though it certainly did make it easier for the Sandaime's dear old friend to handle the clan counsel. To be a shinobi, artisan or geisha.. Or all three? Kakashi x OC ( a little Genma because I couldn't help it) Rated M just in case
1. Chapter 1 - Intro

A little warning to those who finds these things annoying: this story has not been checked by a beta and honestly I wasn't sure was ever going t post it as I really only wrote it for fun, but I figured I might as well try to contribute something to the site that has provided me with so many enjoyable hours worth of reading. I have read it over multiple times, but I'm sure I haven't caught all mistakes - sorry.

Also, my writing style isn't set and I have no idea how the layout needs to be to not be annoying/confusing to read for others yet.

Other than that, enjoy :D And if not, well at least I had fun writing it.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto, only my OC's :)

Kaze no Uchiha: Aya

**- 1990 –**

A little redheaded girl was born in a trading village in Land of Water. She had big blue eyes, framed by dark lashes and a completely natural thin dark pigmentation running along her upper lashes, making her almost resemble an adorable doll. Her biological parents were very proud and named her Aya for her bright coloration. Both parents were sailors, her father having an amazing – some whispered unnatural – connection with the wind, one that seemingly let him know which way the wind would blow before it did. He was however very good at what he did and a kind man, so no one really complained. The family was happy, and Aya grew up spending most of her time on the family's ship.

**- 1993 -**

Uchiha Susumu, a retired Konoha-shinobi turned businessman, and his wife Yui were passengers onboard a ship returning to Land of Water, where they were planning to visit Yui's family and maybe expand their business. While on the ship they met the then 3 year old Aya, who was quite taken with 'the pretty lady', admiring her white-streaked black hair, ocean-blue eyes and colorful kimono. Yui in turn found the little redheaded toddler adorable. They spent many an hour in the company of each other and were sad to part, but the married couple had to travel on, leaving the little trading village.

However, the night after the ship arrived, the village was overrun by bandits, burning the ships and killing indiscriminately. Ayas father lost his life giving his wife the opportunity to run in-land with little Aya. She was however followed before long, and chose to deposit her precious burden far into the woods, running in another direction to distract the bandits, while praying that Aya wouldn't die before someone from the village found her. Her distraction succeeded, but she was also killed.

Aya felt her mother's "presence" disappear the same way her fathers had done, so in her distress she frantically sought out the closest safe "presence" and stumbled through the woods toward it.

The next morning Susumu and Yui got a big surprise when a dirty little creature crawled into their camp, steering unerringly toward Yui, completely ignoring the quite elaborate genjutsu hiding them from sight. Before Susumu could react to the possible danger to his wife, she recognized Aya, picked her up and started fussing over the the almost passed out child. Susumu was stumped: why was the little girl so far from home, and how in the blazes did she see through a genjutsu most chunin-level ninja wouldn't have been able to penetrate?

After upping the defenses around the campsite, Susumu set out to find the answers to his questions, leaving Yui to tend to Aya. He found Aya's mother in the woods, and after killing the few bandits left in the village, talked to the survivors still there. Finding that Aya had no family left, he returned to camp. Yui, always having wished for a child despite having long ago accepted it wasn't to be, quickly decided to take in Aya and Susumu didn't have the heart to disagree with her, even if he thought them a bit too old to become parents at 59 and 61. And anyway, the kid was interesting and kind of cute after being cleaned.

**- 1994 -**

Still in Land of Water, on the day marking a year after Aya came tumbling into their life, the three were celebrating Aya's 4th birthday:*

'…and our first year together as a family. Because that is what we have become' Susumu realized, while watching his wife help Aya cut the cake they made together earlier. He hadn't really paid it any mind, but now that he looked back he could see it had really only been a matter of time.

Originally he had given in to Yui's wish of taking in the little girl for his wife's sake. She caught a virus when she was 10, which she fortunately survived, but was left unable to bare children. It was this realization that prompted her to give up her claim on the family-business and join an Okiya to become a geisha.

'Nearly got away from me then, she did' Susumu thought, smiling.

But despite her seemingly accepting her fate and making the best of it by throwing her all in to training and later their business, he knew she loved children and dearly wished to have one of her own. He himself was of course also very intrigued by the girl seemingly being able to see through his genjutsu at such a young age, wondering if it was perhaps some kind of kekkei genkai.

He actually still wasn't quite sure about that. Since Aya was too young to explain something that came naturally to her, he had played little games with her, designing them to suit the dual purpose of entertaining her and testing her abilities. Or, that had been his intent, but very quickly he found himself becoming more and more involved, actually teaching her other things along the way and feeling a kind of pride when she learned something new – no matter if what she learned was completely unrelated to his little training exercises. A pride he had only now identified as being a father's.

Yui had taken to motherhood as a duck to water. She had so much love to give and so many things to teach, it was amazing to see her bloom all over again, almost radiating happiness. His girls absolutely adored each other and Aya had quickly taken to calling his wife Kaasan. Yui had teased him mercilessly when he confessed that it felt kind of nice, if a bit weird, when Aya named him her Otousan.

'Aya really has become our daughter in all except name, but maybe it is time to do something about that too. I'll talk to Yui about going home to Konoha tonight…'

Bright light blue eyes with a darker blue ring circling the iris blinked up at Susumu, the little girl holding a plate out to him with a big smile: "We made cake Otousan!"

'…But first I will enjoy this lovely evening to its fullest. Which reminds me, better go find that gift for our daughter. I wonder if she will like it..'

- later that night –

"She absolutely loved the fan, dear, she wouldn't even let go of it in her sleep" Yui said with a smile, closing the door into Ayas bedroom in their rented house. Susumu smiled back, arms circling his beloved's waist, pulling her in for a kiss.

"I've been thinking that maybe it is time we returned home to Konoha, so that Aya can be adopted as our daughter officially" Susumu admitted.

Yui's smile widened "You know I would love that", but then said with a slight frown "How do you think the clan will take it? They are awfully uptight about who is allowed to carry the Uchiha name: remember all the fuss when you refused that arranged marriage, saying you would marry out of love, not to breed?"

Susumu's lips quirked up at the memory "Heh, they really didn't like that, threw a wrench in their finely laid plans. But I nonetheless had it my way when I finally got you away from that Okiya. Deserved it too after getting through that damn war alive"

"Yes well, war or no, I still don't think they would have accepted you marrying a geisha if I had been able to bare children" Yui sighed.

"It would have been just like the counsel to think like that, but I think I know how to handle them in this case. We are going to play on their shinobi-caution. After all, no matter how superior we Uchiha with our sharingan are, it would be stupid to leave a child already now capable of seeing through some sharingan-cast genjutsu to be picked up by a potential enemy. It could actually be advantageous to take her under our wing, keeping the ability to see through high-level genjutsu within the clan. Well, at least that is what I am going to tell them, and I know Hiruzen will approve" Susumu said, black eyes twinkling with mischief.

Yui lit up, laughing as she ran her hands through Susumu's long black streaked with silver locks of hair "Oh you are a devious old man. My devious old man"

"And my beautifully matured lady-wife" Susumu quipped, swooping in for a kiss "Now let's get to bed, we have travelling arrangements to see too tomorrow!"

- 2 days later –

Aya loved being on a ship out on the big water. The swaying deck under her feet, big white sails over her head and the sailors calling out to each other felt familiar. But most of all she loved being out where the wind danced freely around her, letting her both see and feel much further than when in the places with many houses around. She loved it, but she was also so excited to see to Kaasan and Otousans home with the really big trees! Her Otousan was standing behind her where she couldn't see him with her eyes, but she could feel him and he was smiling.

Susumu was indeed smiling, watching his daughter staring excited out over the water. He had brought a bento and was planning on the two of them eating it out on the deck, since he couldn't bring himself to take her inside seeing her enjoy herself so.

"Otousan, is that food for me?"Aya asked, still looking out through the railing.

'I really should stop being surprised by her perceiving things she can't possible see, it's almost as if she has eyes in the back of her head. Maybe it is something like the byakugan, just without the bulging veins? But I can't see her using any chakra' Susumu wondered.

"Actually it's for both of us. Move over a little and I'll join you on your on your box" he said, and moved to sit with his daughter, unwrapping the bento. The little girl eagerly took the food; Kaasan's food was the best!

"Otousan, where is our home with the really big trees?" Aya asked after a while, blue eyes searching the horizon.

Susumu pointed the way the ship was heading, saying "It's that way, but the captain says we won't arrive until tonight with the wind like this" "But that's a long time! I wanna get there fast!" she said, looking intently at the way her Otousan pointed. Suddenly the wind picked up drastically, catching the billowing sails, and the ship lurched forward picking up speed. Aya laughed happily.

"That… Can't be possible, right?" Susumu murmured to himself. But the thought stuck.

'It has actually seemed as if the air was moving slightly more than it used to, even inside, but I thought that was a Land of Water-thing. Could the air somehow be related to her perceiving things around her so clearly? And if it does, what are the limits?' he thought. Maybe some new games where in order, something to do with finding or guessing things without looking…

"Aya-chan, let's play a game" he said. Aya eagerly turned to him; she liked Otousans games! "It's a lot like some we've played before: Otousan holds something in his hand and you have to guess what it is, but this time you do it with your eyes closed, okay?" he continued. "Uhn!" she replied.

The rest of the time on the ship flew by for Susumu and Aya, Yui checking in on them occasionally.

Later that night, in a hired carriage en route to Konoha, Aya sleepily thought back on the day. Otousans new games were kind of like the old ones, just without the weird pictures trying to cheat her eyes, since they were closed. She still had to feel what it was, without touching, like she usually did. But the game got a lot harder when she had to find things around the ship or had to describe the things. 'Moving around with closed eyes is easy; it's almost like normal, only without the little things and color. But how could I know what color something is when I can only feel it! I hope we can play again soon…' she thought, finally drifting into sleep, head resting on her Kaasan's lap.

When they were sure Aya was asleep, Susumu and Yui talked quietly about what they had learned about their daughter that day. In the end they agreed that it would be prudent to do some more testing and step up her training a bit; light chakra-moulding and chakra-control exercises, starting her on taijutsu-katas and preparing her for wielding a small tessen – she did so love her fan after all. They would make it as fun as possible to keep their daughter motivated, but agreed she had to learn, since they wanted their beloved little girl to be able to protect herself as fast as possible.

- In Konoha –

After finally getting to Konoha and through the gate, the family brought what little luggage they had with them – the rest would arrive later – using the private entrance to go directly through the wall surrounding the compound to the garden surrounding their house. Luckily the guards at the gate knew them and let them through with Aya; they even sent a message to the Hokage, stating that Uchiha Susumu was seeking an appointment with his old friend and village leader at his earliest convenience. Upon having unpacked, they dressed in more appropriate clothes to be able to respond to the Sandaime's summons immediately;

Susumu in deep blue pants and high-collared long sleeved shirt in the same color, but with the Uchiha-symbol embroidered on the collar. He wore black shinobi-sandals, put his long hair up in a ponytail and made sure his beard was properly trimmed.

Yui looked him over, thinking 'He might have gotten older, but in my eyes he is still the most handsome man around', smiling when Susumu caught her looking and winked at her.

Aya was dressed in an ocean-themed child-kimono: azure with a white wave-pattern. Over it she wore a little obi, dark blue with little ships sailing across. Her long wavy copper-red hair hung loose, she had her beloved red fan in the hand and little red geta on her feet.

'In short she looks completely adorable' Susumu thought. 'But prize for being the loveliest definitely goes to my darling wife'.

Yui had chosen a simple dark red kimono embroidered discreetly along the edges with little golden and green birds, matching hakama and a clear green obi with a beautiful big bird in gold, reds, greens and blues stitched onto it. Her obi-belts were golden, the socks stuck into her geta white and her hair done up in a simple up-do with golden hairpins keeping it in place.

- At the Hokage Office -

As luck would have it, Susumu's message reached the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, just as he thought he would be left to drown in the dreaded paperwork.

'I haven't seen Susumu and Yui for way over a year, and the guards said they had a little girl with them. Interesting… To hell with paperwork, it will have to wait!' Hiruzen thought, smiling with a slight maniacal glint in his eye. Hiruzen then remembered the chunin standing before him, looking a little nervous at his Hokage's expression.

He cleared his throat, saying "Send a message to Uchiha Susumu; I will see him and his family now", and watched the chunin's quick retreat from his office. Sighing he resigned himself to a bit more paperwork.

30 minutes later he was saved by knocking on his door and in walked the most adorable little girl he had seen in a long time.

The meeting with the Hokage went well. When it was over Aya was registered as Uchiha Aya, daughter of Uchiha Susumu and Yui by adoption and an appointment for a check-up at the hospital had been made. They had also talked over how to best wrangle the Uchiha-counsel into accepting Aya and Hiruzen agreed to omit the information on her possible kekkei genkai from the official records, only stating that while her status was civilian, she showed an aptitude for seeing through genjutsu and would be trained in the basics by her parents, as she was unlikely to be able to join the Academy because of their travelling lifestyle. In return they agreed that they would keep Hiruzen updated on her progress, so that he could make a different file on her, for the Hokage's eyes only unless she decided to join the village as a shinobi.

All in all they all left the meeting happy. Hiruzen was left much more relaxed after the meeting with his good friend and his charming wife; meeting their lovely little daughter and seeing them interact as a family was a delight. He was also looking forward to them coming over to visit him and his wife the week after.

Susumu and Yui had gotten new good input and were relieved with the outcome of the meeting.

Aya had gotten a lot of candy from the nice man, who was Otousan's friend and was told that now they were officially a family. Which she thought was kind of silly, because they had been a family in a long time!

Susumu used the next few days in fierce discussion with the Uchiha counsel-members, but as predicted got his way in the end.

Author's note(s):

* _seeing as her papers were burned with the rest of the house, they chose consider that day her new birthday_

You don't need to read this, it's just a little info and clarification regarding her family/adoptive parents for those who are curious :)

Uchiha Susumu was a high jounin-level shinobi before he retired and a good friend to the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, despite their age difference. He is also loyal to his village first rather than the Uchiha clan, in spite of being the brother of the current clan leader's younger brother. This and his tendency to follow his own head, like he did when he refused to marry anyone but Yui, hasn't made him all that popular with the clan's counsel since he is well-respected enough to hold some sway, but they have a silent truce of sorts; he doesn't meddle in clan-matters, while they keep their noses out of him and Yui's lives. Aya's adoption was pushing it, but by then her parents' business was so successful that they held more influence because of their contributions to both the clan and the village, so not only would they not have suffered from denouncing the clan, but it would also have lost something by it. Well, that and Susumu knows how to play the political game so t speak, even if he finds it troublesome.

Uchiha Yui was born in Konoha to a pair of merchants with roots in Water country. The years she spent in their store and later when she was being prepped by the Okaa-san (proprietor) to run the Okiya (where geisha are trained and work from) she joined while younger, gave her the necessary skills to run a business and also she inherited her parents' flair for business. Just to be clear; Susumu did a good job adapting to a whole new lifestyle when he retired, but it was Yui who started up and later made the business flourish.

You know how civilians outside the Hidden Villages rarely even notice the shinobi conflicts? Yui and Susumu can expand their business relatively unhindered to other countries despite their rather infamous name, because it is a civilian business. Plus they have a good reputation and primarily cater to a costumer-group that is typically very popular with those well off enough to hold any power; the geisha. And said powerful peoples' female family members of course, since those will want their hands on the lovely merchandise too.

...I could go on, but I will just stop here... I'd recommend looking up geisha on wiki at some point :)


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: sadly I do not own Naruto.. Sigh..

**- 1995 -**

Aya, now 5 years old, was back in Konoha for the 2nd time and she was bored. Usually when Kaasan and Otousan went places they couldn't take her during their travels, they would drop her of at one of the Okiya, where the pretty maiko Onee-sans or the strict Okaa-sans they knew would teach her all sorts of things. She especially enjoyed the dancing, singing, fan-wielding, games and learning about flowers and colors. But Yuki-nee-san actually made the history, customs and culture-lessons funny, so they were sometimes okay too.

The point being, she wasn't left alone. But now she didn't know what to do with herself, since it was really boring to be in the house with only Nobuo-san, one part of the married couple employed to keep the house in order, as company. Why did the clan have to arrange a meeting without children being allowed anyway?

'That's it; I am going out to play. There has to be other children around here, there always were everywhere else' Aya decided, sneaking out the door leading to the rest of the Uchiha-district, and almost running into an older boy wearing goggles on his head. "Who are you?" she curiously asked.

The 9 year old Obito to looked down and did a double take when he realized a pretty little red-haired girl wearing a blue-themed yukata with the Uchiha-fan on its collar was looking right back at him with big light blue eyes, smiling eagerly.

'Whaa?' He very intelligently thought, before his brain kicked in again 'Her colors are way too bright for an Uchiha... No scratch that, FINALLY someone with some bright colors in the clan!'

"I'm Uchiha Obito and someday I'm gonna be Hokage!" he stated with a big smile, looking expectantly at the girl before him.

"Cool! I'm Uchiha Aya. I want to both become a beautiful geisha, like Kaasan, and learn everything Otousan can teach me" she said, smiling back at him.

Despite the difference in age and goals Aya and Obito just clicked, having unexpectedly found another person within the clan who didn't judge them, instead cheering each other on. Obito told about the ninja academy, training and his helping the elderly of Konoha; Aya about her traveling with her parents, visiting their shops, playing games with Otousan and learning from her Onee-sans. While talking about their parents Obito remarked that technically one could call her his Oba-san since her parents were from the same generation as his grandparents, but seeing as she was younger he was gonna go with Oba-chan. Aya then realized that would make him her Oikko, dubbing him Oikko-kun. They had a great laugh about that, but somehow the names stuck.

When Susumu and Yui came back from the clan-arrangement, they found the two happily chatting away in the garden, Aya having invited Obito in when they got hungry.

Starting with that visit Aya built a solid friendship with the older boy, and Obito soon introduced her to the playground many of the younger kids went to, so that she wouldn't go wandering when she got bored again. There she met lots of children and had great fun with them, but two boys named Iruka and Hayate stood out. They in turn thought she was pretty cool, being able to keep up with their sometimes wild games despite being a girly girl. Aya didn't really bond with any of the girls her age; she had enough in the girls apprenticing at the different Okiya, who were a bit more mature.

Sadly the family had to leave before Obito got to take his genin-test, but they promised to write each other – Aya with a bit help from her Kaasan – so that she would know how it went, and what it was like to be ninja.

**- 1995-1999 -**

Over the next 4 years Aya's life settled in to a sort of routine: Every morning she would stretch and go through her katas with her Otousan, practicing her speed using hand-seals.

If they were on the road, she often sat in the carriage during the day, where her Kaasan taught her in the theoretical subjects she would need as geisha and business-woman; reading and writing of course, but also history, literature, customs and cultures, anatomy, calculus and politics – usually focusing on the countries they were in or near. She also taught some fun stuff like communicating with fan-gestures and how to observe and read the body language of the people around them, which made Aya feel kind of like she was on a secret espionage-mission.

Sometimes she walked with Otousan. Usually he taught stuff using games or assignments. Through those she honed her stealth, balance, and speed, learned about the nature in the places they travelled and how to find her way with or without a map. Otousan had dubbed her feeling-through-the-wind, the wind-sense for convenience. They trained with that a lot too, pushing her to become more accurate, increase her range of perception and even become better at bending the wind to her will consciously.

If they were based somewhere longer or her parents were out handling business, they would drop her off at one of the Okiya to be taught there during the day. This was possible because they paid for it and because the Okaa-sans owning the Okiya knew the pair through many years of doing business, given that they sold the most exquisite jewelry, kanzashi, kimono and fans to the best prices on the market.

Susumu and Yui owned multiple shops producing these high-quality items, spread out in different countries. Actually they also had quite a few brilliant weapon-smiths in their employ and had them working together with goldsmiths and fan-makers to produce deceptively beautiful weapons that hid in plain sight – magnificently decorated tessen with retractable blades was one of them. Susumu had a feeling Aya would love those.

In the afternoons and weekends Aya usually played with friends or children in the area.

Every late afternoon or evening, either when they had made camp or Susumu got home, Aya trained with her Otousan. He went over her katas, taught new ones, made her practice throwing blunted kunai and sparred with her. After the evening meal, they ended with some kind of chakra-moulding or -control exercise and she meditated to become more aware of her chakra.

Over the years Susumu found that Aya's chakra did not act quite normally, even if one disregarded that it was extremely hard to sense or see. It was as if her chakra resisted being manipulated through hand-seals, dissipating and returning to its natural flow if there was the tiniest flaw it could use. This was making it very hard for her to learn even the most basic jutsu.

'It's kind of like trying to guide the wind in a directing it doesn't normally blow' he mused.

That was not to say that Aya could not do jutsu at all however. Her chakra-control was very good for her age, having completed the leaf-sticking and tree-walking exercises. There was also the fact that when she really wanted to learn something, she got stubborn, focusing completely on it.

And so it was that she finally mastered the henge no jutsu and found that if she had a feel for how the chakra was supposed to move, she could will it to do it without hand-seals. Suddenly the girl became even harder to find when she didn't want to be, what with her fascination with transforming into the form of particularly cats and birds, though her human mannerisms gave her away. Either way she was encouraged and continued with the kawarimi no jutsu, while Susumu pondered this new development.

'Her chakra responds a lot like the air around her, I wonder if…' On a whim he asked her to channel chakra through one of his chakra-conducting kunai and cut at a nearby log. The result was a slightly wavering chakra-edge twice the size of the kunai, a completely sliced-trough log and a very tired daughter.

'Huh. So I guess we can now, without a doubt, conclude that her primary chakra-affinity really is wind', Susumu thought while picking up his daughter.

On the way to the camp, he resolved to ask Hiruzen's opinion on starting Aya on some chakra shape- and nature-transformation exercises next time they visited him. Maybe he or the Yondaime also had some theories on why his daughters chakra acted like it did.

Until then he would concentrate on teaching her how to flow her chakra through objects in a controlled manner, infusing them with it, walking on water and increasing her chakra-capacity. 'And maybe find her some tessen. Those Suna-nin use them to great effect with their wind-affinities and she already loves fans'

So it was, that on her 9th birthday Aya was introduced to one of the artfully decorated tessen and fell in love, just as Susumu had expected. However, she also quite unexpectedly and to the delight of the craftsmen working there, fell in love with the rest of the workshop: weapons, jewelry, kanzashi, fans and all the combination between them. She started spending what time she could in there observing, helping and learning from the craftsmen.

Also during these 4 years, the family returned to Konoha at least twice a year and was there for most of the really important events; multiple chunin-exams and Namikaze Minato being made the Yondaime Hokage. Susumu asked Aya to memorize the signature-presence of as many of the Konoha-nin as she could, since sensing and recognizing them even when they cloaked they chakra came relatively easy to her. Because of this they had occasionally been able to assist or meet up with Konoha-nin outside the village.

Whenever they were in Konoha, they always spent time with Hiruzen, or as Aya had dubbed him ever since the adults got drunk one night and told her about their younger days; Saru-jii-san. Susumu found this hilarious, refusing to correct her. Hiruzen eventually accepted defeat and instead chose to cherish the fact that the little girl thought of him as a kind of uncle.

Aya and Obito's friendship was still going strong, Obito making time to see her much the same way he always made time to help the elderly; by being constantly late for everything else. He even introduced her to his team: Rin, Kakashi and their sensei, Minato. Everyone loved Minato and Rin was okay, but Kakashi could be a real cold teme, almost as bad as some of the elders from the clan – Obito laughed a lot when she told him that. He also introduced his little Oba-chan to the other genin and chunin when he had the opportunity. Over time Obito had found out that Aya wasn't nearly as civilian in skill-level as she was made out to be, training as much as most genin, so he talked his sensei into letting her watch them training some times. It was made much easier after Minato became the Yondaime Hokage and had access to the Sandaime's hidden file on the younger girl, but the children did not know that. Aya was there cheering Obito on in the chunin-exams he participated in and gave him a really nice black katana with orange grip when he passed at 11.

Of course Obito wasn't Aya's only friend in Konoha. She still met up with Iruka and Hayate, the former exchanging the occasional letter with her. A bit more unusually, she had formed a close-knit friendship with the 4 years younger Itachi-kun, the Uchiha clan-heir with the gentle nature. Itachi, to his father's great consternation, sought her out whenever he could, enjoying the nice atmosphere in the only place in the compound where nobody expected him to act like the anything but himself.

**- 1999 –**

Sarutobi Hiruzen was standing in a private training area, waiting for his friend Susumu and little Aya-chan to show up. He had booked the field after Susumu had told him about his observations regarding how his daughter's chakra acted – making even the basic academy-jutsu extremely hard for her, but somehow enabling her to do the jutsu without seals the moment she got a feel of how exactly she was supposed to mould the chakra – and her possible kekkei genkai, asking for his opinion. His friend had also mentioned that Aya had recently remarked that sensing a person's suppressed chakra-signature was way harder than sensing their signature-presence. Until then they had just assumed that she was simply very gifted in sensing and recognizing chakra-signatures.

He was also a bit skeptical at introducing the 9 year old, mostly civilian, girl to chakra shape- and nature-transformation, so he wanted to observe her himself.

"Saru-jii-san!"

Hiruzen turned to see Aya tree-jumping without any hesitance, moving fast toward him with her father, smiling at him. She had her red hair braided back and was wearing black sandals, blue loose trousers and a matching short-sleeved high-collared shirt with a little Uchiha-fan embroidered. The only thing reminiscent of the kimono and yukata he normally saw her in, was a red obi-like belt around her middle and the fan tucked into it – probably the tessen she had gotten for her latest birthday then.

Aya was excited! Her Otousan had told her that Saru-jii-san wanted to see what she had learned so far, so they were going to train the whole day, the three of them together. She still couldn't do the bunshin no jutsu, but she could feel that the kawarimi no jutsu was almost there. And she was becoming really good with her tessen and getting the wind to blow where she wanted it to.

'I hope he's gonna teach me something today too!' She thought, vaulting of from the last tree, landing in front of her pseudo-uncle.

Hiruzen smiled at the girl, thinking 'So Susumu wasn't exaggerating when he said she could navigate the treetops as good as most chunin – probably better if her so-called wind-sense works as good as he says.'

"Aya-chan, how are you this fine morning?" he asked. Aya's smile widened, but it was Susumu that answered when he landed "Very excited and ready to show off, I'm afraid" he said, chuckling, "So, how are we going to do this, old friend?"

After some good-natured banter they finally agreed to work their way through everything Aya had trained in.

And so it was that later that day, Hiruzen found himself in the novel situation of not being able to find his genin-level quarry. Oh he could likely track her using the little tell-tale signs of passage she left behind, but he couldn't pinpoint her chakra-signature at all. She had moved almost completely silently and very fast too, leaving the clearing the very moment a strong wind blew in and sent leaves dancing through the air, camouflaging her movement.

'Now that I think about it, her chakra-signature was always strangely unnoticeable, almost blending in seamlessly with the surroundings. I guess I never thought about it before because I always felt her parents' approach when they visited, but I bet she could surprise a lot of people without even trying to' he mused, 'Another interesting discovery to ponder after today'.

They had started out with Hiruzen observing while father and daughter went through their usual daily training routine; doing katas and sparring, practicing throwing kunai and shuriken, working on her chakra-control and -capacity, and flowing chakra through her kunai and tessen. In connection with the chakra-exercises Hiruzen had pulled out a piece of chakra-sensitive paper. Unsurprisingly the paper split in two, but then one corner ignited and turned to ash, indicating that Aya's primary affinity was wind but she also had a weaker secondary affinity to fire.

Then came some of the training exercises, games and assignments Susumu had designed to hone and test Aya's skills; using her wind-sense to see things her eyes couldn't, navigating through a genjutsu-trapped field, making the wind blow with different intensities and change its direction, moving stealthily in different terrain, pushing her top-speed to increase by racing and finally working on her jutsu. She showed him how she did the seal-less henge and her progress on the kawarimi using hand-seals.

One last exercise was suggested by Hiruzen; a mission-simulation where Aya had to avoid being captured by himself, while trying to get close enough to make a cut on him. He encouraged her to give it her all and not be afraid to hurt him, since he wanted to experience firsthand how good she did when she had to combine all of her skills.

Which led him to his current situation: standing there marveling at how the young generations still managed to surprise him. 'Better get to it then' he thought, and started tracking.

- The day after –

Hiruzen was walking toward the Uchiha compound, carrying an assortment of scrolls. He had spent the evening pondering and analyzing Aya's training potential and limitations, writing them down:

Her connection with the wind granted her an extra sense that most genjutsu-users wouldn't be able to circumvent. They could however still affect her other senses, so to utilize this advantage she would have to train herself in spotting genjutsu, to disregard the senses they targeted, learn how to think around her instinctive reaction to what the illusion made her experience and master dispelling high-level genjutsu targeting different senses. She already had a head start in this, since she instinctively relied on her wind-sense when what she felt through that didn't correspond with what her other senses told her. She also happened to have a father possessing a doujutsu infamous for its genjutsu-casting abilities.

Her extra sense also widened her field of perception to encompass a dome-shaped area around her; ball-shaped if she was in the air. Widening that area and getting better at perceiving little things seemed like the obvious way to train it.

Speaking of perceiving, he still didn't know what to think of her differentiation between sensing chakra-signatures and signature-presences, or the way her chakra-signature blended into the surroundings. It bore more researching, but it would probably be prudent try and increase her sensing-range for both. He honestly didn't know how to improve on her ability to blend in, especially with her use of the henge no jutsu, but supposed Susumu could experiment with teaching her different techniques for hiding her chakra to see if one of them enhanced it and of course educate her in how to make her body blend in visually with the surroundings too, including animal mannerisms.

However, the most obvious advantage her possible kekkei genkai gave her in battle was - if she could learn to harness it - the ability to bend the wind to her will. Most interestingly, he had noticed that it didn't seem to tire her nearly as much as one would expect. She should really keep on fine-tuning this and keep experimenting with what she could make it do. He actually suspected she used it unconsciously to reduce the air-resistance when racing at top-speed, but that was only speculation as of yet.

The downside that seemed to come with this connection to the wind was her chakra resisting being manipulated with hand-seals. That was a serious handicap, making learning and executing jutsu extremely difficult. It was also very weird, seeing as her chakra seemed perfectly willing to obey the moment she got a feel for what the hand-seals was manipulating her chakra into doing.

He feared that she would likely never master more than a couple of jutsu, so she would have to choose them carefully.

'Unless of course she makes them from scratch through trial and error, and a lot of research' he thought. Which was why he had digged up some scrolls on chakra-nature and -shape transformation, planning on delivering them together with the ones on wind- and fire-elemental chakra plus his handwritten conclusions and suggestions for Aya's future training.

He also added two scrolls on some taijutsu styles he thought would suit Aya better than the one she trained in now.

'All in all she could become a great ninja to Konoha some years out in the future, but of course it all depends on her actually choosing to' he thought, 'and despite her willingness to learn and train in the ninja-arts it seems highly unlikely that she will choose the Academy over traveling with her parents, especially since she apparently recently found her new passion visiting one of their workshops. There is also the fact that her abilities are almost too well-suited for solo assassination-missions, which Susumu probably knows'.

It was a shame, since the village needed all the great or even just good ninja it could get with the war looming over them…


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimed: no, I still don't own anything but my OC's..

**- later that year (1999) –**

Yui was getting seriously worried about Aya. Since receiving the letter informing them of Uchiha Obito having died to save his teammates while on a mission, she had watched her daughter seemingly spiral into a sort of depression. She had nightmares and became almost apathetic, avoiding other people and often hid away on the roof to be alone. 'Which is probably where she is now too' she thought, sighing sadly.

Aya was indeed sitting on the roof, staring at the stars and thinking back on the last few days. When she read the letter Minato had sent her, she had at first gone into shock, completely denying that it could be true. But the more she denied it, the more she knew that it had to be; after all, it was just so Obito to do something like that. 'Really, deciding to give your last remaining eye away as a jounin-present while on death's doorstep?' Then she started crying, completely devastated. She cried for never being able to see him again, cried for his unfulfilled dreams, cried for just missing him and even a little for the teammates he left behind. When she couldn't cry anymore she sunk in to a apathetic state, just thinking about everything and how she hadn't even considered that he might die in this war they were fighting – did that make her a bad person, not worrying about him and selfishly continuing as always? Would others she knew be taken away from her without her being able to do anything about it? Sometimes she raged at the world being unfair for taking him away, feeling frustrated. She avoided other people and hid in places like this roof.

"I wonder what Obito would say to me now?" she absentmindedly mumbled to the stars. Then she actually registered what she had said. It struck a chord in her, shaking her out of her stupor. It was so glaringly obvious what the boy who would gladly throw his life in the way of anything threatening his precious persons – a group of very special people she knew she had belonged to – would have thought of her acting like this. 'He would have been appalled. We made a promise to always support each other in fulfilling our dreams' she thought guiltily, but it soon morphed into determination. Now that he wouldn't be able fulfill his, she would just have to do it for both of them! 'Of course I will have to compromise a little since travelling to become the best artisan ever doesn't go very well with being Hokage' she mused. Standing up, looking out at the stars she said "Obito, I don't have any idea if you can hear me, but this is a promise to you. I will fulfill our dreams. It will probably take me many years, but I will get there; becoming the best artisan out there and getting strong enough to protect our precious persons!"

Susumu and Yui, standing on the ground by the house, smiled at hearing the life return to their daughter's voice and Susumu thought 'You bet you are, and your Kaasan and Otousan are going to help you any way we can'. He was excited; it seemed they were going to take the training up a notch.

**- 1999-2006 –**

After Aya found her resolve, the close-knit family began a tradition of sitting down for a meeting every month. At the very first they discussed Aya's future and how they were going to achieve her goals, sketching out a long-term a plan and deciding that she was going to divide her time between three things:

First, she would finish her education as a geisha, which would grant her several advantages. People tended to appreciate, but underestimate the beautiful women, so she would be able to travel mostly freely, infiltrate into and navigate in the higher social circles, where decisions was made. It also gave her ripe opportunity to master subtle skills like creating a persona, reading body language, manipulating people, situations and the mood to suit her needs – after all, the best way to keep peace was to make the people in power think it was their idea to do so. Meeting and making connections in Okiya all over would also give her safe places to stay and connections to many geisha capable of introducing her to important people.

Second, she would learn from their best in the arts of fan-, jewelry- and weapon-making, and how to combine the three.

Third, she would work continuously on honing her ninja skills.

All three held true to their word. Over the next 7 years Susumu and Yui made sure that Aya was near at least one of the best artisans in their employ as often as possible, learning and gaining new skills at a rapid pace. The Okaa-sans and Onee-sans of the various Okiya still taught her in the skills needed as a geisha, only now she spent every other day helping and observing in the workshops instead. She reached a skill-level where she was actually allowed to begin to make some things herself without supervision. She also went from being considered a junior maiko at the Okiyas, to being one of medium experience, taking on a more active part when she was out to engagements with her geisha Onee-sans.

As she became older, her parents allowed her to stay longer periods in one place while they travelled on, enabling her to take on bigger projects at the workshop and start gaining her own costumers as a maiko.

Aya in turn used her every free moment doing something that would help her get stronger or gain her an edge in a dangerous situation. Her and Susumu more or less followed the suggestions Saru-jii-san had made when she was 9, but added several bladed weapons in chakra-conducting metal to the mix, since they went really well with her wind-natured chakra and developing taijutsu-style: a style relying on agility, speed, almost feline grace and flexibility, some kind of weapon and her widened area of perception. In its defensive form it involved a lot of dodging around and redirecting blows, rather than directly blocking them; in its offensive it allowed her to get in really close or further away to attack depending on her and the opponents choice of weapon. It was a lot like watching a gifted dancer try to mimic the wind, with its twirling and sweeping movement.

Her weapons of choice became tessen, twin wakizashi, a set of claws that could be mostly retracted and to some extent kusarigama. She was also proficient with her ninjato, tanto, throwing knifes and senbon – they just didn't feel nearly as natural for her to wield, so she preferred her other weapons – and positively deadly with a bow at ultra long range where she had the time to set it up.

For her ninjutsu she decided on two she would master no matter what: the Shunshin no jutsu and the Kuchiyose no jutsu, so she signed the summoning-contract with the Falcons – a contract that had been passed on through Otousan's lineage since before the founding of the shinobi-villages, though very few had ever proven compatible enough with the big birds of prey to win the loyalty of more than a few. She got the Shunshin down at 15, and was slowly working her way through the Kuchiyose. She could do the kawarimi and henge, though she very rarely used the former and usually only used the latter to transform into her favored animal forms or changing minor things like color when in human form – she didn't like imitating others and inanimate objects were really hard for her.

Susumu had tried teaching her genjutsu, but quickly decided to stick to training her in noticing, dispelling and thinking around her natural reactions to the genjutsu. She showed absolutely no aptitude for making the illusions herself, since she found the conflict between her senses annoying, couldn't ignore what her wind-sense was telling her and focusing on something she knew wasn't there just didn't make sense in her head.

Aya quickly mastered using her wind-natured chakra to sharpen and extend the reach of her weapons, so she started experimenting a lot with transforming her chakras nature and shape, ending up with several cutting wind-attacks. She was working on making a defense out of rapidly spinning wind, but it was really difficult to get it right.

Her training with her second affinity, fire, was progressing a lot slower. She had just finally succeeded in tapping into it and was now trying to complete the exercise of burning a leaf. She secretly hoped that some day she would be able to emulate the Uchiha-signature fire-jutsu her Otousan used and thereby maybe be able to fit in a little better with the clan. It was during this exercise that they discovered the interesting fact that her eyes shifted color towards an orangey-red while she channeled her fire-natured chakra, though there seemed to be no logical reason for this.

No matter what, nothing would derail her from fulfilling her promise to Obito: she had her first kill at 12 when bandits attacked them on the road, learning to mostly deal with it after a night of distress and a heart-to-heart with her Otousan. She wouldn't ever be killing people needlessly, but if they threatened her precious people their lives were forfeit. Even seeing the aftermath of the Kyubi's attack on Konoha only made her more determined to become stronger, since Obito never would have let overpowering opponents get him down for very long.

Of course her life wasn't all work, she had a lot of fun too, especially when visiting Konoha. She and Iruka had become best of friends over the years, exchanging letters when she wasn't in the village. Like Obito he quickly found that she wasn't as civilian as she looked in her pretty kimonos and yukatas, so they often snuck out to the training fields where they would talk while he practiced and she gave him what pointers she could. After losing his parents he had begun seeking attention by pranking people and playing at being the class-clown, but with Aya he could relax, secure in the knowledge that he was her precious friend and she saw the real him. She even joined in on his pranking, never getting blamed, since no one but her Saru-jii-san and parents could imagine the well-mannered delicate-looking girl participating in such things. They teased each other relentlessly and Aya was Iruka's first real crush, but he knew they were too good friends for him to risk acting on it, and so it passed.

The other person who knew she was much more than she seemed was little Itachi. The two had become closer and she spent as much time with the gentle-hearted prodigy as his busy schedule would allow. Often she simply supported him silently by being there for him, listening when he needed a confidante and giving him a space where nothing was expected from him. But sometimes she would do things like take him out for dango and the like, trying to give him some normal pleasant experiences. When out of Konoha they would sometimes exchange letters, but it wasn't quite the same.

Then fate struck, shattering the little family.

**- 2006 –**

It was a hot summer-night when her Kaasan passed away at age 72. She got sick one day, was burning up with fever by evening and then died the morning after. Aya was devastated, but her Otousan was completely crushed and she feared he would die from broken heart.

She was right to fear it; roughly 6 months later, at 74 years, he followed his beloved wife into death. But not before making sure that their business was run by trustworthy competent people, so that their daughter would only have to worry about pursuing her dreams.

He arranged for her to live at the Okiya close to the Fire-Daimyo's court and their best workshop in Fire country; in fact it was the very workshop where her dream of becoming an artisan had started. That way she would be around people who knew and cared for her, while finishing her education and making important connections. To ensure her ninja-training wouldn't suffer unduly from his absence, he filled multiple scrolls with his suggestions and put them with the others that would hopefully help further her training. He also made the arrangements for his own funeral-service, so she wouldn't be burdened with those decisions at least.

In the last months she had with her Otousan Aya finally mastered the Kuchiyose no jutsu and made two new really good friends; a normal-sized talkative merlin-falcon with blue eyes named Sora, and Tsubasa, who was a darkly colored peale's peregrine-falcon big enough for her to fly on.

Susumu went to his wife in the beyond secure in the knowledge that his daughter would never be alone.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but I take credit for my OC's, which there are a few of in this chapter :)

**- 2006-2009 –**

"That worked out rather well, don't you think?" Aya said, smiling. She and Tsubasa had been training all day, getting Tsubasa used to attacking by channeling wind-chakra through his new blades. Aya had made him the set of metal claws and the blades now attached to the front of his wings after he remarked that he really liked her weapons. The idea with the wing-mounted blades was that he could cut opponents when he flew by them. She was working on designing a sort of armor for him too, but it wasn't her specialty and making it light enough was proving a challenge.

"It really did, didn't it?" Tsubasa answered landing beside her. While they were watching the sun go down he asked, "So, are you ready to leave tomorrow?"

Aya thought back on the past three years. She had mastered pretty much everything the artisans could teach her at the workshop, now designing and creating her own things. She had actually made most of the weapons she used at this point and had a lot to choose from, so it came in very handy that Otousan had had the foresight to arrange for an old friend of his - Shio-sensei - to introduce her to the art of making storage seals. It made storing things so much easier and was a great extra feature for the pieces designed for shinobi-use.

Her geisha-training was also complete. Honoohime, as her chosen geisha-name was, had learned all she could from her Onee-sans and Okaa-sans, including getting a throughout sexual education and having her mizuage. It had been Tonoki-sama, a gentle middle-aged regular customer of the Okiya, who had given her her first experience with sex. He was very sweet about it and it was almost a shame she wouldn't see him again. Over the years Honoohime had also mastered the art of navigating the court, gaining many connections to people in important places. She would miss not seeing Yukihana, the Okaa-san here at this Okiya, and her friends among the Onee-sans, but she would visit from time to time after all.

"I think I am" she said, smiling gently. After all, she could continue her ninja-training while travelling and she longed to be on the road again.

Besides, she wanted to find Itachi-kun, to ask him about the truth behind the Uchiha-massacre last year. She knew there had to be an explanation; there was no way he would have sent a letter begging – well, Itachi's equivalent of begging – her to please stay where she was and not visit Konoha anytime soon, if he had really just snapped and turned into a homicidal psychopath, though it was a testament to his strength of character that he hadn't with the way he grew up.

There was also the matter of the two masked nin that had been watching her since shortly after the massacre. She had managed to mostly keep them from observing her training, only letting them see what she allowed. She had to find out who they reported to though, since Saru-jii-san said he didn't know anything.

Speaking of the stalkers, it seemed that the one who left was back again, which meant Sora was also back from following him. She stood, shadowing her eyes and looking around the horizon. "There she is. Maybe we can get some answers on those nin, eh Tsubasa?"

Sora's report actually raised more questions than it answered. The nin had gone to Konoha and returned here, but Aya didn't believe that her surrogate uncle would lie to her. Especially now that she was his hidden operative, having promised to send word if she came across something that might affect Konoha on her travels, assist if Konoha-nin was in trouble and sometimes carry out missions for him. To protect her identity she was codenamed Kurohyou, a reference to the black feline mask she would wear during battles and missions to avoid being recognized.

Unfortunately this either meant Sora had been duped or else something was going on that the Hokage wasn't privy to, meaning the nin reported to someone else. Aya wanted to believe the first for the village's sake, but Sora specialized in surveillance and trailing, so it was unlikely that she had been spotted or lost trace of her target.

'I think I will keep an eye on them for now, see how they react when I start traveling. After a while I'll ditch them and we'll know how determined they are. Now I better get some sleep, it'll be an early start tomorrow' she thought later that night, placing the bigger scroll holding most of her belongings into her rucksack.

The following year was an eventful one. Aya first travelled around in Fire-country, ditching her stalkers on multiple occasions, but they always managed to pick up her trail again after a while. She suspected that one of them was both a brilliant tracker and most likely had a ridiculously good sense of smell or something like that. On the road she sometimes spent her time talking to them when she got bored – they made for good listeners since they didn't talk back – and generally making it clear that they couldn't hide themselves from her. She concluded that at least their primary objective was to observe her and, after some discrete testing, that they seemed to always choose the most simple, efficient and logical solution to any given problem; she could work with that. She also had a sneaking suspicion that these nin weren't normal ANBU, since even the highly professional ANBU couldn't suppress their emotions completely, while these two seemed to have the emotional depth of flatware, which is to say none at all. Her Otousan had once mentioned rumors of such an ANBU-division in Konoha, but said that though it had most certainly existed, it didn't anymore. Now Aya wasn't so sure, but if they had indeed been conditioned to not feel or have a sense of self, they could likely be manipulated if she did it logically. So that is what she planned to do – it was getting rather tiring talking to what appeared to be no-one.

She set her plan in motion 3 days before she would sail for Water-country. She cornered them on the outskirts of the big harbor-city and laid the facts down for them, explaining exactly why they should stop attempting to observe her unseen and start communicating with her instead.

"The reasoning is sound" one masked nin concluded.

Danzo-sama didn't order them to avoid contact with the target, only to observe her until they got an opportunity to arrange for her to have an accident and then return to headquarters. The most efficient way to observe a target was to remain unnoticed, but this target always knew where they were located and was therefore on guard, eliminating any opportunity. Furthermore, the target had proved she was capable of getting away from them anytime she wished, making them spend their time tracking or searching for her. Having to stay hidden while keeping up with or tracking the target made them expend more energy to traverse the same distances, which was in-efficient since they didn't gain any advantages in return. It was therefore logical to terminate any attempts to stay unnoticed. It was however unacceptable for anyone to see them because Root is the unseen ones who support the great tree of Konoha from the depths of the earth.

"We would need identities" the other stated, having reached the same conclusion.

"Since I will know who you are regardless and frankly you two aren't very creative, I could help you? It really isn't in my best interest if people find out I have shinobi trailing me" Aya said.

The two nin couldn't find fault in her reasoning and gave a curt nod.

Thinking it over, she pointed at the nin to the left, "You are Gigaku Kenji" then pointed to the one on the right "and you are Gigaku Jenki. You are brothers from a little village in Fire-country, travelling around the world as street-performers. I advise street-performers because you have the physical capabilities needed for it being trained ninja and it will allow you to blend in and travel without suspicion, while making some money for living expenses. It also has the added benefit that people expect performers to act a little weird, so your complete lack of any social skills will likely be seen as you being eccentric. You should however use the time while you are tracking me – because I will be ditching you very often – to observe other people's interactions and maybe buy books on the subject. If you don't arouse suspicion I can stick around in one place longer, giving you opportunity to observe for longer. We could also spar some times; that would serve the double purpose of giving us a proper work-out and allowing you to observe me in a different role than you normally would see" she finished, smiling.

The nin pondered this, looking for points conflicting with their mission. They found none and logic dictated that if the target wasn't running away from them constantly, it would give them time to observe like she stated and increase their odds of completing the second part of their mission. The spars would realistically provide them with opportunities for arranging her accidental death, and since she would die it made what she learned about their capabilities void. There was no danger to the village and it was the route with the highest probability of success.

"In case you decide to become Kenji and Jenki you should know that there are plenty street-performers in town right now, so you have something to base your performance and appearance off." Aya advised and then disappeared from view by using a seal-less Shunshin, suppressing her chakra and racing to the agreed upon point, where Tsubasa swooped in and picked her up.

3 days later Aya boarded the ship sailing to the place of her birth, curious as to whether or not her stalkers would follow her out of Fire-country and if they did, how. She knew they had been watching her when she purchased her ticket for the trip over-seas and were aware of which ship she would be on. She got her answer when she sensed them move closer and spotted two young men coming on board. 'They actually look quite good' she mused. Both were a little pale from hiding behind their usual outfit, but athletically built and with fine face-features.

Kenji had very dark eyes and blond shoulder-length hair pulled back in a ponytail. He had on a bit of red eyeliner, a red flame-patterned jacket that was left hanging open, showing his chest was bare. Black trousers, a green sash and green bangles on both wrists completed his look.

Jenki had shorter wild black hair and almost turquoise eyes. His blue shirt was embroidered with a pattern in gold and he wore gold bangles on his right wrist. His trousers were white and he had a red earring dangling from his one ear.

Aya suspected some genuine performers were missing their outfits somewhere, but the mental image of the two drowning in the world that was shopping sent a shiver down her spine, making her hold her tongue – no one should suffer through that experience unprepared.

'It's a real shame the look in their eyes is so dead and their smiles scream of being fake, but maybe we can change that somehow' she thought, contemplating how to bring about those changes.

Kenji and Jenki's transformation into something resembling humans was rapidly turning into a pet side-project of hers…

Aya stayed for quite a while in Water-country, reacquainting herself with the people running the businesses she inherited there and meeting her Kaasan's family again. She also visited her biological parents' graves and the town she was born in, but found that the first didn't make her feel much of anything and the second had more or less been abandoned.

Now she was lying on Tsubasa's back, gliding through the pleasantly chill night-time air after having ditched her tail once again. Sora was flying beside them, chattering about the news from back home at Hayabusa Uchi. "Where to now?" Tsubasa asked when there was a lull in the conversation.

Aya pondered this, and said "I think we should go toward Lightning, Maya has been asking me to come visit her after the New Year, and Kaichi-san invited Honoohime to join her at the Lightning Daimyo's court. I also need to ask Kirui-san about suggestions for that light-weight armor; he is the best one I know at such things and does so love a challenge". The two birds of prey banked right, heading toward the harbor-city nearest Lightning.


	5. Chapter 5

****Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine.. I sure wish Genma was though :)

**- 2010 -**

Genma was slightly frustrated with himself. Yesterday night he had been out consolidating his persona's image as the well-off bachelor that had just moved into one of Lightning-county's biggest party-cities; he had been drinking, hitting on pretty ladies and generally just having a merry time together with some likeminded well-off young men.

'What I don't do for the mission' he thought, smirking.

It was all going smoothly; he had donned his new darkly handsome looks with black hair and deep brown eyes, dressed smartly and set out to find his new best buddies. He found them at a classy bar, making good use of the happy hour, so he blended in by pretending to just haven gotten away from a business meeting. A couple of rounds of expensive sake and some commiserating about slave-driving fathers later and they were convincing their new buddy that he had to loosen up a go out. In fact they were going to one of the hippest night clubs in the city the next night, and he should join them! It was called Naiya and while they were picky about whom they let in, they were all VIP's there, so it was no problem to get in as long as he dressed the part.

His mission was to apprehend a certain man, wanted for being involved with an organization distributing high quality drugs, and it was rumored that one could get in touch with him in that particular night club's VIP-area.

"Too easy" Genma muttered, feeling quite good about himself, while he pulled on his jacket and cast one last look at the mirror. His persona, Karasu Kaito, used much of his free time training in martial arts and had the body to prove it. He dressed casually hip in simple, but very high quality clothes; black pants and jacket to go over a white dress-shirt, cut to show off his lean muscled figure, the collar left unbuttoned and the sleeves folded up. The polished steel ear-cuff inlaid with a black raven and matching expensive wristwatch completed the picture. He met up with his buddies and got into the club without any problems. They headed straight toward the table overlooking the dance-floor and started drinking. It wasn't long before the pretty ladies started joining them at the table. Luckily Genma held his liquor quite well and was just pretending to drink most of the time anyhow, so he was only slightly buzzed when it became his turn to go into the less loud bar-area and order drinks.

That was where he met the most gorgeous lady he had had the pleasure of laying his eyes on in a long while; wavy copper-red, almost flaming, locks pushed to one side, exposing a long slender neck and almond-shaped big blue eyes. The deep red above-knee-length figure-hugging dress, discretely embroidered with little kitsune along the edges, and a deep V-shaped neckline plunging down her back coupled with matching high heels did things to him that shouldn't be happening while on a mission.

But was it was the look in her eyes that did him in. She took her time scanning him from head to toe, held his gaze for a moment longer than strictly comfortable and then walked straight past him holding three drinks, eyes twinkling merrily at some joke he was sure he wasn't in on. He was left having absolutely no idea whether or not she liked what she saw, but really wanting to find out.

'I'm not sure if I love or hate this mission right now. It won't be out of character for Karasu Kaito to pursue a foxy lady like her, but it would be way more satisfying to do it being myself' Genma thought, paying for the drinks being sent to their table before making his way back there, 'Well shit, now I actually feel like drinking'.

Aya was getting slightly drunk, but having a lot of fun dancing together with Maya and Kini. She had come here with Maya, whom she had known since she was 6, and met up with some of Maya's girlfriends. Soon the girls started splitting off from the group; some becoming drunk too quickly, others sitting down with guys, until they were the last three still together.

It was when she was up getting drinks for them she spotted the Konoha-nin. She had been aware of his signature-presence since she stepped into the club. If she remembered correctly he had been one of the Hokage's elite guards, 'Genma I think', and was at least 5 years older than her, with chin-length light brown hair, brown eyes and an oral fixation. 'I wonder if he still has that?' she thought, giggling to herself. She had to admit he pulled of the dark and handsome look very well indeed 'and that shirt shows off his body a helluva lot better than the jounin-uniform'. While she was looking him over carefully she honestly expected him to snap out of it any minute and recognize her since hadn't even attempted to hide her identity. She found it tremendously funny when he didn't, considering that he was the one in disguise, 'but I guess I do look a bit different with my hair down and not wearing a kimono or yukata' she mused, conveniently forgetting that she had also matured quite a bit since the jounin last saw her.

Meanwhile Genma had spotted his foxy lady dancing and was pondering what the hell he was going to say to her after acting like a mute before. "Oh well, Bugen Jikkō: actions speak louder than words" he mumbled to himself, keeping his eyes on the prize while shrugging out of his jacket, "watch that for me, will you buddy?" he asked, not bothering to listen to the answer.

She could feel him moving toward her, a thrill of excitement running through her as his arms encircled her from behind, pulling her closer and turning her around to dance. Still she saw no signs of recognition in his demeanor, but definitely noticed his burning gaze and playful smile, not to mention the deliciously muscled body – there was just something about a well-trained shinobi's physique that beat even a similarly well-trained samurai and the more muscled heavy lifting workers in her eyes.

After a while of dancing so closely with her Genma admitted to himself that he probably had to get away from the dance-floor, since he wouldn't be able to repress his physical reaction if they danced much longer. Therefore he signaled toward the quieter bar-area.

She took the lead, Genma loosely grabbing her hand and following when she moved over to stand by the bar. Once there, he moved in from behind, boxing her in by placing his hands on either side of her. He leaned closer, his mouth hovering over the right side of her neck 'Kami it's tempting' he thought, but instead asked "So what does my Kitsune-chan want?" smirking when he felt her unconsciously leaning just at fraction closer to him, "From the bar I mean".

Aya couldn't stop a pleasurable tingle from spreading through her body when she felt Genma move; standing so close she could feel the heat radiating from his body on her entire backside and her sides where his arms boxed her in against the bar. It only got worse when his hot breath tickled her sensitive neck and ear, 'Or one could say it only got better' she mused, shivering pleasantly when she heard his voice had gone husky, 'So I'm not the only one feeling the heat so to speak, that's nice to know' she thought.

Genma just knew he was screwed when he saw a devilish little smile spread on her lips as the redhead in front of him turned, so that she leaned on the bar and looked him straight into the eyes. "Oh I'm sorry, I don't think they make Sex on the Bar here, and they do so hate when customers do it themselves" she said, blinking blue eyes up at him.

Genma's brain short-circuited for a moment before he groaned, leaning his head on her shoulder. Then he felt her shaking with laughing and couldn't help but join in.

They ended up buying the slightly more innocent Mojitos and found a place to sit, spending the rest of the night bantering back and forth. Genma wondered at the almost knowing look she sometimes sent him, getting the feeling that she knew a lot more about him than she was supposed to, but somehow his intuition was telling him she wasn't a danger. He didn't ask her her name, since he couldn't give her his real one, instead referring to her as Kitsune-chan and Aya in turn respected this, calling him Karasu-kun for the bird on his ear-cuff.

When the club closed Genma picked up his jacket on the way out and put it around Aya's shoulders. He then took her hand in his, walked her to the door of the house she was staying at, gave her a long searing goodnight-kiss and left her still wearing his jacket.

And thus it was that Genma was left frustrated with himself, 'I can't possibly be mooning after a woman I have only just met. For Kami's sake, I don't even know her name! And besides, she has already left the city' – yes, he had checked – 'which is probably for the best, I have a mission to accomplish' he resolutely thought, 'The faster I get this done with, the faster I can get back home among good friends and forget about that woman'.

Aya had indeed left the city, moving up her visit to the Daimyo's court a few days. She figured that it was better for Genma's mission if she wasn't there to complicate matters, and besides, she didn't think it wise to continue their flirting without him knowing who she was. Casual sex was fine, but it could get awkward when she went to Konoha next time.

During her time by the court Honoohime made a lot of new connections, learned a lot of interesting information and even got to visit Lightning's hidden village, Kumogakure. Afterwards she stayed at Kirui-san's workshop, where the two of them stuck their heads together and worked on making effective ultra light-weight armor. Aya had introduced the project under the guise of some geisha wishing for extra protection, after one had died of a stab-wound inflicted under a fight between a patron and his would-be killers. The special requirements were that it had to be very light and easily camouflaged, so as to not be seen. Kirui eagerly accepted the challenge, and after they had made the prototype together, Aya borrowed a closed off part of the workshop and set about making a version that could be strengthened by channeling chakra through it. The result resembled the mesh-shirts many ninja wore, only a lot stronger while keeping the flexibility. She created 3 such armors; one for herself, Tsubasa and Sora. The armors where painted, the two as to blend in with her summons' plumages and the last for herself in a matte black.

Kenji and Jenki had caught up to her again by the time she was ready to move on, so she travelled with them for a while. 'They have actually come a long way' she mused. They still didn't have much in the way of social skills, casually insulting people without knowing it and in turn being insulted without them ever realizing. People reacted very differently to them; some getting mad, unnerved, confused or frustrated with them. Others thought they were cool and most people observing these situations thought it was hilarious. The two brothers – because they were rapidly becoming their roles, quirks and all – also did well as acrobatic street-performers.

Aya had a lot of fun talking circles around them, messing with their heads. She tried convincing herself that she did it to introduce new ways of thinking, but the truth was that she found them adorable when they were completely confused – and not trying to accidently kill her. Because she was sure that was what they were attempting to do during their spars. Luckily for her she was faster and didn't lose track of them like they did of her. It also had the added benefit of keeping her on her toes and not letting her skills dull after going so long without regularly pitting herself against an opponent – finding sparring partners was rather hard while staying at the Okiya, but now that she was travelling and taking on missions from time to time it was slowly getting better. She had however noticed that they weren't trying very hard lately, almost not at all in fact, as if they were actually unwilling and fighting their orders by remaining passive. Both had also found things that she suspected they actually liked, as in felt something for; Jenki was mean at running games and Kenji was taking care of a small white ferret as a sort of pet, both letting just a bit of real emotion shine through when doing these things.

The unlikely some-times-travel-companions moved from Lightning country toward Earth-country, following an erratic pattern of ditching, searching and meeting up.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: ...Oh you know the drill...

**Kaze no Uchiha**

Aya was racing through some woods with only Sora for company when she sensed it. "Itachi-kun, I finally found you" she mumbled, upping her speed and adjusting her heading so she would end up right in him and his companion's way.

She got there ahead of them, dismissed Sora and settled in a tree to wait. 'Itachi-kun is now a S-class nuke-nin, so his companion is probably also a nuke-nin' she thought. When she felt their presences getting close she stood up, figuring that there was no sense in startling paranoid nuke-nin more than necessary.

Kisame was gob smacked. He and Itachi was on their way back from a mission, when suddenly some chick none of them had sensed just popped up in a tree right in front of them. She was pretty damn hot he had to admit, with her flaming hair-color and well-built physique, accentuated by a short blue kimono-like robe and ice blue silver-embroidered narrow obi. But was she a danger and how the hell did she sneak up on them? That was when she jumped down, walked toward his partner completely un-intimidated and looked straight unto said partners activated sharingan, smiling, and said "Hello Itachi-kun".

The real kicker though, was that Itachi actually reacted! He froze, eyes widened and his mouth opening slightly like he didn't know what to say. That was like the Itachi-equivalent of being stunned speechless and dropping your jaw. 'I really hope we don't have to kill her, I already like her!' Kisame thought, barring sharp teeth in a predatory smile, which only got wider when the strange woman didn't flinch in the slightest at the sight.

Itachi's thoughts went racing with possible scenarios of how his Aya-oba-chan would react. Would she attack him, hate him for killing the clan? He had known he would have to face her at some point and had tried to steel himself, mentally preparing for the pain it would cause him to see the hate in those eyes of hers; blue eyes that had always looked on him with accept and support, letting him know he was loved for him and not what he could do. But it was for the better, this was his burden to bear and in time his Otouto would release him from it by killing him.

Then her unafraid approach, the genuinely happy look in her eyes and her words shattered his resolve, bringing out the teenager in him that was hungering for affection and missing his remaining real friend – a friend that he could always depend on to back him up no matter what.

'Pein and Madara can't know who she is or what she means to me. Kisame has already seen too much, but if I don't return together with him it will make people suspicious of who I am meeting' Itachi thought, before he got an idea 'It's risky, I hope she will trust me enough to not resist'.

Aya saw Itachi signing "trust me" with the hand his companion couldn't see, and then his sharingan changed. The next thing she knew she was seemingly sitting on the Hokage monument, Itachi beside her.

"It's called the Mangekyo Sharingan and to acquire it the one closest to the user must die in their presence. This is Tsukuyomi, a genjutsu that traps the opponent's minds in an illusory world of the users choosing, usually to torture them for what feels like days in a matter of seconds. I used it on Sasuke that night" he said, hoping against hope that she wouldn't be scared off, but having to try.

"That must have really hurt you, doing the things you did that night" she answered, looking straight into the teenagers eyes. Itachi let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, "I'm not going to be able to scare you away, am I?"

Aya smiled at him, "Not a chance, I know you too well. You would never have done what you did unless it was the lesser of two evils, so the other alternative must have been dreadful".

Itachi sighed "It would be safer for you not to know, Oba-chan. Some really powerful people are involved in this and I am handling it as best as can be done right now"

"Handling it by sacrificing yourself to look out for Sasuke and Konoha if I know you right. Who is looking out for you Tachi-kun?" she asked, gaining a small smile from him at hearing the affectionate name she used when they were alone. 'She is probably the one person I can safely tell; Aya-oba-chan would never betray my trust. There is also the fact that if I do this, there will be a back up person with my knowledge in case I get killed prematurely' he thought, feeling his resolve crumble.

"If I tell you, you will have to promise me that you won't do anything about it, at least unless I am killed prematurely. Will you do that?" he finally relented.

"If you think that is for the best, I will trust your trust your judgment – I promise to not act on what you tell me. But I will not let you suffer in silence any longer" she said.

So then Itachi told her about how the Uchiha was planning a coup d'état that would leave the village ripe for invasion, his role as double agent, the Sandaime's failed attempts at reconciling with the clan and Danzo manipulating him into making a choice between the lives of his clansmen or that of his little Otouto and possibly the rest of Konoha. How he had gotten the Mangekyo by assisting his best friend Shisui in dying, receiving his left eye to keep safe, since Danzo had already stolen his right. He told her about receiving the order to wipe out the Uchiha clan from the Konoha counsel against the Sandaime's wishes, and meeting with Uchiha Madara – who was mysteriously still alive and trying to pull Konoha into war – dealing with the ancient warmonger, getting him to promise to leave Konoha alone if Itachi in return helped him claim vengeance against the Uchiha for turning their backs on him decades ago. He talked about the fateful night where he carried out the massacre, how the last place he went was to his home, where his parent stated that they were still proud of their eldest son, and requested that he took care of Sasuke before allowing him to kill them. How he left his beloved Otouto alive to kill him and avenge the clan, making sure he would hate him and get strong fast by using the Tsukuyomi to show him how he killed their family. Finally, how he pleaded with the Sandaime to keep Sasuke safe from the counsel before he left Konoha, becoming a nuke-nin and taking the blame for the massacre.

While Itachi talked he watched for Aya's reaction. He saw disbelief, anger, incredulity, frustration, sympathy, shock and many other emotions, but never the hate toward him that he had feared and gradually the tension seeped out of his shoulders.

"I joined the Akatsuki to keep an eye on Madara; he is posing as a member named Tobi and pretends to obey the leader – Pein – but in reality he is running the show from behind the scenes. My original partner was Orochimaru until he defected after trying to get my body, my current is Hoshigaki Kisame whom you saw, a nuke-nin from Kirigakure and one of the Seven Swordsmen" Itachi finished.

Aya sat digesting what she had learned. One thing was clear; her parents had been more right than they knew to only trust Saru-jii-san with her abilities and training. She would never ever take orders from Danzo or the other old cynical bastards, even if they did what they did to protect Konoha. Konoha was its people, the people that carried the Will of Fire onward, and she could not forgive them for not trying harder to save the Uchiha from themselves or at least sparing the ones not involved in the coup. That they had exploited Itachi's undying loyalty and love of peace, and ordered the gentle hearted boy – because that's what he was even if he was ANBU – to systematically slaughter most of the people he had ever known and then make him take the blame was unforgiveable to her.

Then she moved to her knees, scooted closer to Itachi and pulled him into a long tight hug, which he slowly let himself relax into – it had been so long since someone had touched him like that. After a while she leaned back a little, looking at him with a strange mix of sympathy, sorrow, pride, affectionate exasperation and love. "Bless your gentle loyal heart Itachi. You did right to make me promise not to act or I would have gone hunting this moment. I am so, so sorry you had to go through this alone all this time"

Itachi closed his eyes, a warm feeling flowing through him, the feeling caused by knowing he was unconditionally accepted and trusted.

They moved so that Aya was sitting against a tree with Itachi's head resting in her lap, playing with his long hair like she had done since he was little, and they just talked. About their day-to-day life and what had happened in Aya's life since they lost contact; she even made him smile a little with her little anecdotes, especially the ones from her pet-project of re-humanizing Kenji and Jenki. He confirmed to her that an ANBU-subdivision that made use of brainwashing had indeed existed and that it likely still did, despite having been disbanded. It was called ROOT and its members were unquestionably loyal to Danzo thanks to brainwashing and emotional conditioning throughout their training. Aya confessed that she wasn't quite sure about how healthy it was for Sasuke to hate so intensely, but acknowledged that it was safer for him in the village that way and that Itachi couldn't have taken a kid with him to live the tough life of a nuke-nin, never mind exposing him to Madara's influence. It was the least risky of several bad choices, to leave him where the Sandaime could protect him. She promised that she would look in on Sasuke whenever she had the chance and not tell him the truth, but she refused to even pretend like she hated Itachi.

In the end they had to break it up though. Itachi advised her that only a moment had passed outside the genjutsu and they agreed that she should pretend to be unconscious. If they ever met and it was necessary, they would fight seriously enough to be convincing, but without aiming to kill.

Kisame had of course missed their little reunion, so what he saw was Itachi activating his Mangekyo Sharingan and the woman crumbling to the ground unconscious. "Let's keep moving" his stoic partner said. 'Or my usually stoic partner I should say; pulling out the Mangekyo first thing to deal with a woman saying hello seems like over-kill. That could mean that she was more dangerous than I thought, but then he wouldn't have left her alive. Maybe the kid has finally developed hormones and he just panicked at seeing a former lover – if that's the case he sure knows how to pick them!' the big blue man thought, smiling even broader. "Sure thing. But I gotta say, you really know how to make them fall for you" Kisame said, 'Was that a twitch I just saw?' And so it happened that Kisame's fantasy ran rampant the rest of the way to the hide-out, conjuring up increasingly unlikely scenarios involving Itachi and the redhead. Itachi just knew he didn't want to know what was going through the blue man's head to make him smile like that.

Meanwhile Aya had dusted herself off and was back to travelling, rapidly nearing Earth-country while she pondered the things she had learned that day.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto... And I'd much rather have Kakashi anyway if I could :P

**Kaze no Uchiha**

At 24 Kakashi had been in some very strange situations in his career as shinobi, but he had to admit that this one had completely blindsided him. He was currently on his way toward Earth country's border, sitting in a carriage with a beautiful young geisha called Honoohime.

7 days earlier he had been fleeing from enemy nin that were steadily gaining on him because of him being wounded and poisoned, growing increasingly certain that it was the end of the road for him. Oh the wound and the poison themselves wouldn't have killed him if he could just have gotten a moment to do something about them, but they were slowing him down enough for his enemies to catch him and under no circumstances could his enemies be allowed to get Obito's sharingan or trace his presence there back to Konoha. He would readily have ended his life himself right then, but had to keep ahead of the pursuers while fighting off unconsciousness until he could harness his messed up chakra enough to ensure the jutsu he needed didn't fail.

The assassination-mission just inside Land of Earth's borders had been a setup and he was quickly swamped by enemy nin. He killed off most of them, but one had gotten in a very lucky hit with a weapon coated in poison that was messing with his chakra, so he wasn't moving nearly fast enough to get away from the ones chasing him through the city's hanamachi now. They were nearly upon him when he was suddenly pulled into a deep doorway and felt the slight prick of a needle positioned so as to paralyze him from neck down, consequently ruining any chance of him managing to activate the suicide jutsu in time; then a body pressed closer to hold his up while hands swiftly removed his mask. "Play along" a feminine voice whispered in his ear, before soft lips pressed down on his and slender hands moved up to rove through his hair, removing the needle on the way.

Kakashi didn't think he could have done anything else even had he wanted to. Some of the enemy nin stopped, but only saw a woman and her lover embracing, continuing their search.

The last thing Kakashi remembered seeing before passing out from the blood loss was red hair, blue eyes and a kimono smeared in blood.

Aya had been at a banquet with some highly placed officials when she felt a signature-presence she knew very well, since for the past 11 years she had been checking in on it whenever she was in Konoha. 'What is he doing here?' she wondered 'Earth country really isn't a good place to be a lone Konoha-shinobi'. When she felt his presence begin to dull, indicating a serious injury, she had excused herself by feigning illness and used Shunshin to get to him.

'I was just in time too' she thought, looking down at the unconscious man lying on her bed. She had bandaged his wound and made him swallow some blood-replenishing pills, so she was mostly worried about poison and the infection his body had been fighting against for the past 2 days. He had woken just once during that time, croaking out a "why?" to which she had answered truthfully that she had once had a very good friend in Konoha, who would have wanted her to help him, and then made him drink some water. She wasn't lying, just omitting. It was only now his fever had finally gone down enough that she could take a real break from watching over him, 'I might as well get some sleep now I have the chance, and there is plenty room left in the bed' she decided, laying down.

It was while she was half-asleep that Kakashi woke up again and saw the woman lying beside him. He was very confused, until he remembered how he had apparently been saved and the short moments he had been conscious since. 'So it really wasn't a dream' he thought, 'She said she had a friend in Konoha who would have wanted her to help. I wonder who it was…' For some reason he was sure she wasn't lying when she said it. 'But how did she know that I am from Konoha? Is she a kunoichi? But I can't sense her chakra…' Even as he knew he should be suspicious of her, he couldn't shake the feeling that she was somehow familiar and could be trusted. 'Be as it may, I still need to get word to Konoha about the trap and my current situation'. He felt for his chakra, judged that he had enough and that his control was back, summoned Pakkun to deliver his message and then he fell asleep watching the beauty beside him.

Aya had of course heard his message to Saru-jii-san. She estimated the team, that would no doubt be sent to escort the wounded nin back, couldn't be here until 4 or 5 days, and even then they would probably wait outside the city for Kakashi to get out. After all, it was no use stirring up more trouble a place they shouldn't be when their comrade wasn't in imminent mortal peril.

Therefore she set about arranging Honoohime's departure in 5 days. The plan was very simple really: they would set out from the Okiya in a closed carriage and travel toward the border, since Honoohime was returning to the Fire-daimyo's court for a visit. A ways out of the city, preferably when she felt the presence of other Konoha-nin, she would stop the carriage to stretch her legs while Kakashi slipped away unnoticed. Until their departure the wounded nin had to stay hidden in her quarters. Hopefully no one would suspect anything, but if worse came to worst she would have to deal with it as Kurohyou and then get them to the border herself.

'In the mean time I should try to find out anything I can about that trap. I bet Saburo-san will know' she thought, her smile perhaps a tad predatory, but then someone had very nearly succeeded in killing a konoha nin and Obito's last remaining teammate to boot, right under her nose. Saburo was a high chunin-level shinobi who hated Konoha with a vengeance, so he would almost certainly be in on any attempt to set up a Konoha-nin. He also got a loose tongue whenever he drank enough and he happened to have an appointment with Honoohime the following evening…

Over the next five days Kakashi got to spend a lot of time near Honoohime, but to his frustration he only managed to get some vague answers on some of the things he had been wondering: "How she had known he was from Konoha? Well the yells about the Konoha-scum going that way might have tipped her of. What about her friend in Konoha? He had died on a mission, but before then he loved the village dearly. Was she kunoichi? No, she was geisha. But she did have some basic training, was proficient in anatomy and good with needles" and so on.

He did however learn that him being an infamous elite shinobi didn't unsettle her in the least, which was highly unusual for civilians and even nin who didn't know him very well. She was also very intelligent, resourceful, capable of trashing him in many different games, loved to tease him and not very shy about him catching a glimpse of her body while she changed clothes – he suspected the last two were somewhat connected. 'And what a body' he thought. She obviously kept fit, but her curves didn't suffer from it and her long wavy copper-red hair made his fingers itch to touch it. 'All of her does actually' the perverted part of his brain remarked, going into overdrive. But come on, a gorgeous young geisha hiding him in her quarters was bound to do that to him, wounded or not – he blamed Jiraiya and his addicting literature. The most frustrating part however, was sleeping beside her. She didn't care about them sleeping in the same bed and he had found that she would snuggle up to him in her sleep, which his traitor body in turn reacted to. By the fifth day he couldn't count the times he had woken up with his arms wrapped around her and a hard on, which was a bit awkward no matter how well she took it.

Aya actually found his little predicament quite amusing, figuring that she should take it as a compliment. And he did look quite handsome, body and face both – covering up his face had been much less urgent than getting him inside and stop the bleeding – so she happily kept snuggling up to him. On a more serious note she also found it heartening to see how different this Kakashi was compared to the stuck up one she met as a child, and if this was what it took to drag his thoughts away from his dead teammates, even if just for a bit, she had no problems with embarrassing him a little. 'What I don't do for you Oikko-kun' she thought jokingly, snuggling closer.

Finally, seven days after Aya had averted his death, they set out from the Okiya. A ways out from the city she sensed the rescue-team and Kakashi's summon, getting a slight déjà-vu when she realized that one of them was Genma 'Really, what are the odds..' she thought. As she stopped the carriage to drop of Kakashi, she used the wind to send his scent toward the dog.

Aya smiled at the man beside her, whom she had gotten increasingly fond of, then as a final teasing gesture leaned in and placed a quick kiss on his masked lips. "For good luck" she said, eyes twinkling with amusement. "I'd suggest going in that" – here she pointed toward the direction she had just sensed Genma and the dog splitting from the others, running at top speed towards them – "direction, but you probably already know that" she said, leaving Kakashi wondering at how much she really knew. The enigmatic geisha in turn stepped out on the carriages opposite side, distracting the driver and guards by bringing out food for them and settling down to eat herself, while Kakashi slipped away.

Aya finally relaxed when she sensed that Kakashi had been found by Genma. Then she tensed up again 'Why are so many nin heading this way?' she thought. She got her answer when some descended on them, checking the carriage and the area surrounding it while one of them apologized profusely, telling her they suspected that a dangerous ninja might have used her carriage to get out of the city. Then they found the minute signs of passage Kakashi had left just off the road. She of course played suitably distressed at the thought, pulling out tears and all; she was very convincing. They let her drive off in her carriage, concluding that she was the unfortunate victim and such a delicate creature shouldn't be inconvenienced further, before they joined the chase. Well, that or they realized that even if the geisha had helped the fugitive, there was no way they could pin it on her and she was well-liked enough by especially the Fire Daimyo that they would be in for a world of trouble if she died on their watch; be as it may, they moved on.

Sensing that nine enemy-nin were quickly gaining on the two men she found herself caring about, Aya made a split second decision, telling her escorts that she would sleep off the distressing experience. Then she made a quick braid of her hair and hurriedly dressed in her battle-attire: Knee-length boots, leggings, light-weight armor with a tube-top under, a mask much like Kakashi's only not connected to a shirt, high collared hooded jacket and her Kurohyou-mask – all black. For weapons she donned her elbow-length armored black gauntlets with retractable claws, a black weapon-pouch holding senbon and kunai, stuck her throwing knives into the boots and swung her ninjato on her back. Her kusarigama, wakizashi and tessen were kept in seals hidden under long sleeves by the wrists for easy access. Two minutes later as she pulled up the hood, she silently slipped onto the carriage's roof, shunshin'ed away and raced to intercept.

'Damn' Genma thought 'Kakashi won't be able to take this pace for long, his wounds are already opening' But the enemies were gaining on them quickly and he wasn't sure they would reach their comrades before being caught up to. 'Do I stop and stall them here while Kakashi moves on or stay with him so that his pace doesn't drop? He won't be fighting long in this condition' he pondered.

Only years of battle-honed reflexes let them dodge the barrage of kunai coming from behind, 'Too late to think about it'. "Kakashi, keep moving toward the others!" he said, then stopped and got into position, ready to barrage the incoming nin with senbon and kick their asses. Kakashi however stopped with him, getting into a fighting crouch "There are nine of them; they'll flank you and you won't have sufficient cover in this terrain to get away. I'm not leaving you without back-up" the silver-haired jounin stated by way of explanation. Genma was about to tell him it was his mission to save him, not the other way around, when the argument became moot.

As the enemy-nin charged toward their position, an incoming wind-jutsu stopped them in their tracks, just a step short of being cut to pieces by the attack that left four deep gorges in the rocky ground. "What the…" Genma said, looking around for the new addition to the fight. He spotted a black masked female figure on higher ground to the left of them, indicating it to Kakashi. "Not one of ours, I think, we would have known if someone in Konoha was capable of wind-jutsu of that caliber. But it doesn't look like a friend of theirs either" Kakashi answered. "So, is the enemy of my enemy my ally, or just another enemy?" Genma mused.

He got his answer when the masked – some kind of feline, was she with ANBU? But no, they didn't have black masks – nin moved between the factions and signaled for the two Konoha-nin to move on, using the standard hand signs they commonly used to silently communicate on missions. "At the very least Neko-san isn't an enemy then" Genma decided, as the opposition recovered their wits and attempted to overwhelm her, presumably before she pulled out another dangerous jutsu.

Neither Kakashi nor Genma were the type to leave an ally behind, but soon came to the conclusion that she was merely keeping them busy and focused on her, dancing around their attacks at impressing speed but not going for any kills. They were about to follow her command and move on, but their enemies had realized the same and six nin broke away to attack them.

Then the feline showed her claws, figuratively and quite literally, while the wind picked up.

Kakashi had uncovered his sharingan, so he saw how she suddenly moved at Shunshin-like speed toward the three furthest ahead, seamlessly weaving around attacks and jutsu she shouldn't have been able to see. He saw the way her metal-claws extended, lighting up to his vision as chakra coursed through them and formed into wickedly sharp wind-chakra-blades; blades that went through the torso of first one enemy and then, as she elegantly spun around once, a second like they weren't even there. He spotted the way her right hand went to her pouch while her left was still cutting through the second body and brought out a senbon, infusing it with so much wind-chakra that when she threw it, it went straight through the heart of a third enemy as she completed her spin. It was a lot like observing an elegant dancer with all the smooth almost sensual movements, only this dance was fast and deadly.

'Very deadly indeed' Kakashi thought as he watched the bodies fall or fall apart. He took himself in thinking that this must be what it would look like, if the wind itself decided to take physical form and fight, the random gusts of wind only adding to the impression 'Doesn't seem like a jutsu though'.

The abrupt death of a third of their number within a mere moment significantly sobered up the remaining enemies, making them pull back slightly. The Neko, as Genma had dubbed her, again placed herself right between hunters and hunted, claws still out and the wind swirling agitatedly around her. She was turned toward the enemy-nin, body language daring them to try and defy her. It was quite intimidating, Kakashi could testify to that as she looked back at them, cocked her head like saying "what the hell are you still doing here?" and a sudden strong gale almost pushed them back.

"I think that our queue to leave, ne Kakashi" Genma finally drawled. Kakashi just nodded, moving quickly away with his friends help.

'About bloody time they got a move on' Aya thought, slightly exasperated with the two men. Then she jumped backwards to the position the two men had held before. It was a silent assertion that she would stand in their way if they continued their hunt, but also an offer to get their dead and leave now. While she waited for them to decide, she kept track of the four Konoha-nin and mentally counted down to when they would be past the boarder. The six nin however apparently couldn't come to an agreement, so she reached the end of her countdown before they did a decision. Therefore she simply deserted the area, discretely returning to her hired carriage just before it got to the border checkpoint.


	8. Chapter 8

Geez, my chapter lengths are all over the place :S Oh well, I guess no one is going to complain about a slightly longer :)

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine (frankly my drawing skills aren't quite up to the challenge)

**Kaze no Uchiha**

At the Konoha Hospital Kakashi lay intermittently cursing the doctor that had decided he should stay and the other patients in the room. 'Kami I hate hospitals' he thought 'And my own overactive perverted brain…' he added as an afterthought.

The silver-haired jounin had woken up very hot and bothered from a steamy dream when another patient had a coughing fit. Now he lay awake, conflicted as to whether he wanted to fall asleep as fast as possible and hope he returned to the same dream, or take care of the effects the dream had had on his body. The dream had not surprisingly featured a certain geisha, but he had no idea how his brain had snuck in the black-masked nin too, since she had been all covered up. 'On the other hand, those were some nicely shaped legs and those dancer-like sensual movements…'

Kakashi groaned and added a curse at the way his sharingan allowed him to remember details he hadn't even been paying attention to at the time. Just to top it all off, he then realized how empty the bed felt without a hot body snuggling up to his, something that had never even crossed his mind during his formers stays in the dreaded hospital. He sat up in the bed, thinking 'I need something distract me right now' and his eyes fell on the barely begun report on the bedside-table. 'I can't believe I'm actually considering doing this'.

Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage, sat half buried in paperwork – again. He was however in a contemplative mood after having read Kakashi and Genma's latest reports – Kakashi was apparently bored enough at the hospital to actually turn his in on time – so he ignored the mounts of paper in favor of pondering. Perhaps it was high time that someone was let in on Aya-chan's status as his operative Kurohyou, especially now that two of his most trusted shinobi had met her and would be asking questions about the black-masked shinobi that aided them.

He could of course feign ignorance or deflect them by stating she was a secret operative of his and leave it at that. But he wasn't getting any younger and here he had two good men who likely felt they owed the mysterious woman. If something should happen to him they would be able to vouch for her and it had the added benefit of giving Aya more people she wouldn't have to lie to or hide big parts of herself from. 'She has way too few of us with her parents and Obito gone' he thought sadly. To his knowledge there was only him and her summons who saw the complete person 'Maybe Itachi-kun too, I wouldn't put it past her to have found him on her travels, they were awfully close. But that is a whole different can of worms'. There were of course people he suspected saw much bigger parts than others. Iruka was one such person, as was Yukihana – the Okaa-san at the Okiya she had stayed the longest at and a dear friend of Yui's – the married couple overseeing the house, and some of the artisans at the big workshop near Yukihana's Okiya. She had recently mentioned that next time she came back, she would move into her parent's house for real and establish a workshop with a little store attached for her work. If she had more people in the know, they could cover for or train with her, making sure she kept her shinobi-skills sharp without attracting too much attention.

The more Hiruzen thought about it, the better he liked the idea. He would have to get her approval on letting them know, but no matter what, he would have to call her back to be debriefed on the mess in Earth. If he got a positive response he would arrange for Kakashi and Genma to be present, else he would just make sure Kurohyou got in without being spotted by any other than the ANBU that would escort her to the office before leaving them. 'Now, to the message..'

_Dearest Honoo-chan_

_Could you come by my home at 22.00 in three days? I'm looking forward to hearing your newest tale; I heard some of it from two friends of mine you came across recently. I was also wondering if it would be okay for the two gentlemen to be present when you come; I really want to introduce you properly, since they are good men. _

_Your Jii-san _

_P.S. You should bring Kuro-chan with you, Kuma-san will make sure she is let in and kept safe until you reach me._

When he was done he blew the whistle Aya had given him for when he had to get a message to her fast and waited for the falcon that was stationed in the village.

The next morning he got his reply:

_Dear Jii-san._

_ Of course we will come by; in fact I am by the daimyo's court right now, so it will not be a problem to make it in time at all. And I would love to be properly introduced to people you hold in such high regard. Just please promise me old Cyclops won't come anywhere near us, or I will never be able to keep Kuro-chan behaving. I remember Kuma-san; thank him many times for using his time for us._

_ Love Honoo-chan_

Hiruzen frowned a little at the blatant warning of keeping Danzo away from her lest she do something stupid, but figured she had a very good reason 'Maybe she really did find Itachi-kun…'. He took care of the last details for the meeting with his ANBU and made sure the message summoning Kakashi for the debrief was one hour earlier than the one for Genma.

Then he set about mowing through his paper-mountain – Aya-chan always teased him relentlessly if it got too high.

Honoohime had indeed been at the Fire-daimyo's court when Takayuki delivered Saru-jii-san's letter. She had changed mode of travel from the relatively slow carriage, to running or flying with Tsubasa as Aya at the first town they reached after passing the Earth border.

Now she set out toward Konoha as Kurohyou, relishing being able to run high up in the enormous trees she loved once again. She had timed it so that she arrived at 21.40 and didn't have to wait around in the dark for long before an ANBU she recognized as Kuma appeared. He took her to the Hokage-tower's roof through one of the routes usually employed by the black ops, flared his chakra discretely to signal her arrival to the Sandaime, then he left. Aya settled down by the edge of the roof, waiting for Saru-jii-san to open the window.

While she waited she sensed that Kenji and Jenki were in the village too 'I wonder if they are okay, they were doing so good being human.. Kami I hope they have the sense to hide that fact from their superiors or they will be brainwashed all over again. I'll have to talk to Saru-jii-san about getting them away somehow' she thought, then concentrated on what was going on beneath her.

Down in the office Kakashi and Genma had just gotten done recounting the events of their missions. Kakashi, having noted the complete lack of any surprise when they described the stranger who aided them and the fact that the ANBU usually stationed in the office weren't there, asked "With all due respect Hokage-sama; you don't look very surprised at hearing about this nin?"

The Sandaime smiled ruefully, walking over to stand by the window overlooking the village. Then turned to them, expression serious "You will have to give your word that you will let nothing you learn here tonight slip, no matter what, unless you have my permission to do so"

The two shinobi bowed to their Hokage, swearing to keep their silence. The Sandaime smiled and opened the window, walking back to sit by his desk.

Genma and Kakashi looked at the opened window curiously, half expecting Jiraiya to pop down as he was wont to do. They therefore did a double take when the black-masked nin was suddenly crouching there instead, casually stepping off the windowsill and closing the window behind her before the Sandaime activated the privacy-seals. The real kicker however, was when she casually said "I see you are not swimming in paperwork for once, how nice. Long time no see, Saru-jii-san" like it was the most natural thing in the world. And what was that name she called him? 'Well the monkey-part makes sense I guess, but uncle?' Genma thought.

Kakashi of all people felt obligated to say something, though it was a bit half-hearted "Oi, show our Hokage some proper respect"

Hiruzen chuckled at seeing the surprise on the two normally laid-back men's faces. Then he cleared his throat in an effort to stay serious. "Ah, it's quite alright, I don't mind. Kakashi, Genma, I want you to meet Kurohyou; she is something like a secret operative of mine. I say something like, because she is technically a civilian and has a life outside being my operative, but she helps me out by doing missions and sending back valuable information. I tell you this partly because you can then vouch for her if something should happen to me, and partly because you don't deserve to be left wondering about who you owe for getting you out of a bad situation" he said, watching the digest the information.

"But this is actually not who I really wanted to introduce you too:" he said and turned to the sole female occupant of the room "Would you be so nice as to de-mask and present yourself". Aya chuckled at seeing the merriment and mischief in her jii-san's eyes.

'Here it goes then' she thought, just a bit apprehensive as to how they would react but mostly finding it funny.

Genma and Kakashi looked on as she first zipped down her high collared jacket, revealing the black cloth-mask that covered her neck, long gauntlets with retracted claws, figure-hugging mesh-armor and black top she wore under it. Then she shrugged off the jacket and thereby the hood completely; shaking out her long wavy copper-red, almost flame-colored, locks and gaining the two men's undivided attention.

'Could it be?' Kakashi thought, seeing a certain red-haired geisha flash before his mental eye, while Genma found his thoughts wandering to mischievous kitsune in red sexy dresses.

Next she removed her black feline mask and pulled down the the cloth-mask beneath it, revealing almond-shaped light blue eyes and finely structured face, confirming both of their suspicions. "Honoohime?" Kakashi asked. She winked at them, smiling.

"Honoohime is my chosen geisha-name, Kakashi-san." "Please cut the –san" Kakashi interjected absentmindedly, Aya nodding. "My parents named me Aya, Uchiha Aya; pleased to meet you" The two men were dumbfounded; she didn't look like an Uchiha at all and wasn't Itachi and his brother supposed to be the last ones? The name however poked at Kakashi and Genma's memory somehow, and then it clicked. Kakashi's visible eye widened "Obito's Oba-chan?" he asked. Genma in turn looked at him incredulously "Oba-chan?" he asked, thinking back on the well-mannered young girl wearing kimonos he dimly recalled visiting the Sandaime.

Aya laughed a little, remembering how even the stuck up Kakashi from back then had done a double take when she was introduced to Obito's team. "Exactly. It was a bit of a joke between us, even though it was true in a roundabout way. My parents were up in the years when they found and adopted me, making Uchiha Fugaku my closest cousin while Obito's parents were further out, but cousins nonetheless. Obito then, was technically from the generation after mine"

'Well it explains her looks if she was adopted, but how is she still alive if she is an Uchiha?' Kakashi wondered. Aya read the question in his eye and answered, "It wasn't a lie when I told you I am a trained geisha you know. Actually I was staying at an Okiya finishing my training as geisha and artisan after my parents died, so I wouldn't have been in the village even had Itachi-kun not written and asked me to stay away".

Before they could ponder that particular bit of information, Hiruzen broke in saying "Aya-chan, I've already heard Kakashi and Genma's reports, maybe now I could get your side of the story?"

Aya gracefully accepted the change of topic, "Of course Saru-jii-san. You know how Otousan asked me to memorize signature-presences whenever we were in Konoha?"

The Hokage nodded, then turned to Kakashi and Genma to explain "Aya-chan's senses work a bit differently than we typically see, as she has one extra and is capable of sensing and recognizing people in two ways: from their chakra-signature and signature-presence, as Aya dubbed it. The last one enables her to sense people regardless of whether they cloak their chakra or not. Aya's father, Uchiha Susumu, asked her to memorize as many Konoha-shinobi as possible, so that he would know if a comrade was in the area and in need of assistance. They managed to help quite a few over the years; a custom his daughter has thankfully carried on with, though most often without them ever learning of it".

Aya continued her report "Honoohime was attending a banquet – I can compile a guest list later if you want it – when I felt Kakashi's presence. I kept tabs on it throughout the evening until I felt him fleeing severely wounded, at which time I excused myself and raced to assist. I intercepted him in the hanamachi as his tail was closing, choosing to temporarily paralyze him as I didn't have time to explain and I didn't want to try and handle a wounded jounin in survival-mode, or suicide- for that matter."

Genma whistled "Getting the drop on an elite jounin on full alert is damn hard, even it's a wounded one"

She smiled "To be fair, I'm very hard to sense if I don't want to be found and the area was flooded with shinobi distracting said jounin. I proceeded to hide us in plain view by masquerading as one of the many couples found in the hanamachi. Luckily the pursuers bought it and didn't break off their hunt."

Genma shot Kakashi an amused look which he studiously ignored.

"Kakashi soon passed out from his blood loss but was still bleeding, so I called down Tsubasa who was circling above, bringing him to my quarters by air so as to avoid leaving a blood trail" Aya said. Kakashi felt a bit uncomfortable knowing he had been so completely out of it that he hadn't even noticed they'd been out flying that night 'Wonder what this Tsubasa even is?'

"Once there I took care of him as best I could and made sure the fever didn't kill him over the next few days. He woke a couple times, but it was not until two days later he was really coherent, which is when I went to sleep. I woke up enough to overhear him giving his summon a message to carry to Konoha, so the next day I set about arranging for Honoohime's departure in a closed carriage, timing it with when I figured the rescue-team would be here. Then I decided it would be prudent to find out what had actually happened that night and did so through a patron of mine. It turned out the culprit was one Sadaoshi Nori, a filthy rich old bitter man, who commissioned the mission from Konoha and then paid for a ridiculous amount of ninja to help catch or kill the ninja the village sent." Aya's look became cold as she calmly stated "Sadaoshi-san was unfortunately found dead in his bed the morning Honoohime departed, as someone had slid his throat during the night." Kakashi had noticed she had been out late on that last night…

"The carriage left without any problems and I called for a break when I sensed Genma and Kakashi's summon, concluding it must be the team sent to get their comrade home. It wasn't long after they had met up that multiple enemy-nin descended on the carriage, but they let us drive on believing us to be victims and went off to join the chase. I decided to intercept as Kurohyou when I realized nine hostiles were catching up to Genma and Kakashi, who hadn't made it back to the others yet." Aya smiled, saying "I'm sure you already got a detailed description of how that went, so suffice to say that I tried to avoid killing needlessly, but ended up having to use lethal force on three in quick succession to demoralize the rest. It worked, so I left after a while without engaging in further fighting, returning to the carriage."

The Sandaime sat back in his chair, thinking. It was more or less what he had deduced and guessed, except for the part with Sadaoshi Nori. They would have had to make sure he died for setting up one of their shinobi the way he did anyway, so he guessed he could overlook his unsanctioned killing. He nodded to himself "Thank you" he said.

Then continued "On a different note; Aya-chan, you wrote that you were considering moving back into the house and open that workshop of yours next time you came by. I know this was an unscheduled visit, but maybe you are staying anyway?"

"I might as well. I have all my things sealed in a bag Tsubasa is carrying for me, so I don't need to go get anything. I'll just inform Yukihana-Okaa-san that Honoohime won't be attending the Daimyo's court in the foreseeable time" she said.

Hiruzen smiled "I'm glad to hear that. Maybe I can find some work for Honoohime here, Kami knows I could use someone well-versed in smoothing over dangerous political waters without offending any of the parties. But we can talk about that later, now we need to get Kurohyou out of the village, so that Aya-chan can enter in the morning. "

Aya picked up her jacket, shrugging into it and pulled up her cloth-mask while she moved toward the window. Then she came to a standstill, remembering her earlier thoughts on the roof.

"Oh, that's right. Saru-jii-san, do you recall those two stalkers I asked you about?" Aya asked. Hiruzen frowned "Yes, you never wrote about them again as I remember. I assumed they went away?"

The redhead smiled sadly "Well not really. They became a sort of strange sometimes-travel-companions to me over time" She turned around to look straight at him, a hard glint entering her eyes "I am now completely sure that old Cyclops-teme is the root of the problem and they are merely some of his puppets. A dear friend of mine confirmed my suspicions"

"That young friend of yours I knew told you this?" Hiruzen had to make sure. When she answered, the two men in the room could almost see him age before their eyes.

"He told me everything" she confirmed. Then her features softened a little "He also made me promise not to act on any of it, so you shouldn't worry too much about it. What I wanted to ask you was this: over the time I found myself caring about them. It became something of a pet project of mine to humanize those two puppets and I even named them. They were doing very well too, but now Kenji and Jenki are back home and I am worried about their owner discovering the changes in them and undoing all my work. Do you think we could get them away from him somehow?"

Kakashi and Genma could almost feel the S-class secrets whizzing over their heads during their little exchange. 'I could be reading too much into it, but Cyclops, Root and Humanizing puppets popping up in the same conversation is almost too much of a coincident. And who is her little friend?' Kakashi thought. Genma on the other hand was wondering how on earth she got so completely entangled in the secrets of the village, when she hadn't spent all that much time here despite calling it home. Both resolved to keep an eye out for her; they liked her dammit, and who knows what she might get entangled in next, actually living here.

Hiruzen relaxed a bit, then turned his mind to the problem at hand. "This is serious if you are right, Aya-chan. We will have to find out where these puppets are kept and then see what we can do" he said. "That's all I ask. By the way, could I commission some genin to help Nobuo and Kyoko at the house tomorrow? They are getting older and if I know them right, they are going to insist on making both the whole house and garden presentable immediately." she said, smiling fondly.

"I'll make sure a team drops by. I'll see you soon Aya-chan" he said while she donned the last of her Kurohyou-attire, then he deactivated the privacy-seals and opened the window. Before she joined Kuma on the roof, she threw a wordless salute at the room, disappearing from view afterwards.

That night Kakashi lay awake. The meeting had certainly given him enough to ponder, 'So, Obito's Oba-chan is still alive and she actually had quite a bit shinobi-training despite being civilian. No wonder Obito wanted her to observe us training and no wonder Minato-sensei allowed it; he was probably in on it from the moment he became Hokage'.

He was still wrapping his brain around the fact that a person who shared his connection to Obito was actually still alive, a person who had most likely been even closer than him. 'How does she even feel about me having Obito's eye? Does she know how I got it? How it was for my sake Obito died? Kami she must hate me and she is right to.' For some reason that last thought hurt immensely. She hadn't acted like she hated him in Earth, true, but surely that would change as soon as she knew what happened back then. Kakashi was very conflicted; on one hand he really didn't want to stay away from Aya, on the other he couldn't in good conscience spend time with her without being sure she knew the truth, though he was afraid to be condemned by the last remaining person close to his deceased teammate. A person Obito would have wanted him to help any way he could. But people close to him tended to die, so could he even risk it? That she just happened to be a person he found himself being attracted to as a man just added to the mess. 'Obito what should I do?' he wondered. Kakashi didn't get much sleep that night.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I can claim no credit fr the awesomeness that is Naruto, only my OC's.

**Kaze no Uchiha**

If the morning was any indication of how the rest of the day would go, it was going to be brilliant Aya mused, as she walked at a leisurely pace towards Konoha's big main gates. The sun was shining brightly, making beautiful shafts of light filter through the leaves overhead. Birds were singing and the air smelled of summer and green forest. After being escorted outside the village that night, Aya had travelled out a bit further to spend the night in a magnificent tree while Sora kept an eye out. When she awoke she changed into something more civilian: a simple dark blue kimono that bared her neck in the geisha-fashion and had a small Uchiha-fan stitched onto the back of the white collar, matching hakama, white socks and red geta. Her obi was relatively narrow, white with Tsubasa's likeness embroidered on it flame-like red colors and bound with golden obi-belts. Oval dangling sapphire-earrings, simple makeup with red-painted lips and nails, hair up in a loose bun secured white chopsticks and a red and white umbrella completed the picture. Civilian was not to say unarmed however, so she had two beautiful gold-overlaid tessen tucked in her obi and a tanto strapped to her left forearm; the rest of her weapons were sealed different places on her person as per usual.

Then she swung the medium-sized rucksack on her back and set out, planning to get breakfast at the little tea-house on her way. She got into Konoha without any problems later that day and went to surprise Kyoko and Nobuo, the married couple that had overseen the house and grounds for as long as she could remember. It turned out Saru-jii-san had worked fast and the two were already completely submerged in the task of getting house and garden ready for her moving in, ordering the genin-team around while humming happily. So as to not disturb, Aya just put her rucksack down, gave them each a quick hug and then tip-toed out of the house as fast as she could, going to visit her parents' graves instead.

Now she was wandering around in the village, taking in the sights. 'It's actually more of a sprawling city by now' she mused. Then as she walked past a certain ramen-stand an idea struck and a mischievous smile lighted up her face; across the street a man walked straight into a lamppost not looking where he was going. Aya winced, 'Poor man' but quickly returned to her idea. 'I'm gonna go fluster Iruka-kun and then abduct him from the Academy! I never did get him back that for that last prank and he works too much anyway…' she thought, changing course toward the Academy.

When she was on her way through the door, she ran into a blue-eyed blond kid wearing a jumpsuit in a fascinatingly bright eye watering orange color. He also had the most complex signature-presence she had ever sensed 'No that's not true, the Yondaime's girlfriend and that awful rapper in lightning was like this too; almost as if there's two presences in one body' she corrected herself. The kid was snickering and seemed like he was looking for a place to hide - judging from the angry shouts coming towards them it was with good reason.

'He kind of reminds me of Iruka during his pranking-period. I wonder if this is the trouble-attracting student he mentioned in his letters' Aya thought, smiling fondly.

The pretty lady shocked Naruto greatly when she saw him and instead of sneering shot him a smile. Then she shushed him and stepped forward to hide him from his pursuer's line of vision, opening her umbrella to hide him more easily and even directing the guys chasing him away. 'Doesn't she know who I am?' he thought, hoping against hope that she did and it just didn't matter to her.

"They're gone. Now tell me what you did" she said, startling him out of his thoughts. To his amazement she only laughed merrily when he told how he had pranked some of the teachers because they ignored him. When she finished laughing, she said "My name is Aya, pleased to meet you Pranker-san". Naruto couldn't believe it; maybe it really didn't matter to her who he was, like how Ojiisan and Iruka-sensei were! He still braced himself for rejection when he happily half-shouted "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm gonna become Hokage. Believe it!"

At that statement Aya was transported years back to when she met Obito as a little girl, 'What do you know, maybe Oikko-kun really got reincarnated. I hope he's more punctual this time around…' Then the name really registered 'Ah, he must be that kid then. No wonder he has to resort to pranking to draw attention to the boy instead of the demon'

"I'll look forward to it. In the mean time; can you show me where the sensei named Iruka is? I'm going to play a little prank of my own and abduct him from his work you see" she said, smiling conspiratorially. Naruto was all ears.

Iruka was sitting peacefully in the teacher's lounge grading assignments, sighing a little as he went over Naruto's. 'I wonder what he will get himself into today' he thought tiredly, standing to file away the papers. As it turned out, it wasn't Naruto's pranks he needed to worry about this particular day; right in that moment two arms snaked around his middle, a warm definitely female body pressed close to his back and woman's voice purred into his ear "Did you miss me, Iruka?"

For a moment Iruka brain blacked out, then his face-color turned into something closely resembling a tomato while jumbled thoughts ran through his head trying to rationalize 'She must have the wrong guy, What will the other teachers think, who is…Kami, is that her lips tickling my ear, But she said Iruka'. At last he stammered out "Ano, excu-cuse me?"

Meanwhile Aya was having great fun watching both his and his flabbergasted colleague's reactions. She decided to lay it on thick before Iruka recovered his wits.

"Ara Iruka, are you still not done? And I even came to pick you up, I was so hoping we could go out now" she said, letting his colleagues see her sad imploring eyes. One of the older married teachers leaped at the chance to help out his young colleague, who was apparently very shy around the ladies, and said "Oh it's no problem Miss, I'll finish it up for him, so you two young lovebirds can just run along" and received a dazzling smile in return.

Aya then latched onto Iruka's arm and pulled the dazed young man with her, chattering about where they should go while they walked toward the exit, leaving curious onlookers all through the Academy.

It was Naruto's voice that broke him out of his daze: "Oi Onee-san, I think you broke him" the blond said, waving his hand in front of his sensei's face. Iruka heard a familiar laughing voice answering "Don't worry Naruto-kun, he'll come to in a moment and realize who I am and where he is – it was a sort of tradition for us to eat ramen together after we pulled off a prank".

Suddenly it clicked. Red hair, blue eyes, pranking and ramen. To the great amusement of the on-lookers both in front of and behind the bar, Iruka groaned and planted his head on the surface in front of him "You really got me good this time Aya-chan" he said as he turned his head toward his longtime friend and pranking-buddy. Iruka could almost see the smugness radiating off her as she answered "I did, didn't I?" looking back at him; then the two broke down laughing, leaving Naruto wondering about the 'this time'. They were still snickering and reminiscing about old times when Ayame put bowls of ramen in front of all of them and Naruto started his usual eating routine.

Aya watched with a kind of morbid fascination, as the kid ate through bowl upon bowl while he told the Ossan about his day, demonstrating some of the most horrible table manners she had ever seen and seemingly defying the laws of physics with the amounts he could consume. She looked at Iruka questioningly, but he was apparently concentrating on his food. A little later the two stood outside, waving goodbye to Naruto before they walked toward one of their old haunts in a nearby park.

Iruka having actually noted her look earlier chuckled and said "And no, I still haven't found out where he puts it either" Then he turned serious, quietly asking "I take it you know who he is?" Aya just nodded. Iruka sighed sadly "He grew up being constantly ignored and neglected, so no one was there to teach him all the little things parents usually do, even though the Hokage tried to make time. This ramen-stand is one of precious few places in the village that welcomes him. I'm ashamed to say I ignored all the signs, blinded by my own memories of that night. It was only when I became his homeroom-teacher my eyes were opened and even then only after both the Hokage and Hatake Kakashi talked some sense into me. I'm glad you are a better person than that, Aya-chan"

"Don't be too hard on yourself, Iruka-kun, when you are doing right by him now. I wasn't there that night like you or lost anyone close to me. Besides, he is such a very peculiar mix of people I once knew: Obito's dream and passion, Kushina-san's ramen-obsession and temper, and your pranking for attention, with a little of the Yondaime thrown in for looks. How could I hate a person like that?"

Iruka's expression turned a little funny "I don't think I've ever thought about it quite like that, but it sounds about right" he admitted. As they lay down in the soft grass he then asked "So long are you staying this time?"

"Quite a while. As we speak Kyoko and Nobuo are commandeering around some poor genin to get the house ready for me to take up permanent residence in. I didn't want to get in their way, so I went out. Anyway, I'm going to open a small workshop here, I think, and maybe help out Saru-jii-san from time to time. So you won't be rid of me for a long time" she said, grinning.

Iruka laughed "So what you're saying is that you fled the scene before you could get pulled in by the force of nature that is Kyoko-san on a mission?" "Exactly" Aya answered completely unashamed, "Which means that now I have plenty time to hear about all the little things that didn't make it into your letters for one reason or another". Iruka's smile widened "You'll return the favor of course?"

The two of them spent the rest of the day catching up and recounting, laughing at all the ridiculous situations they had somehow ended up in over the time. When they got hungry they found a barbeque-place to eat at, only breaking the flow of the conversation to order. They went their separate ways late that night when they finally remembered that Iruka had school the following day.

As Aya was walking back to the house she felt Genma's presence stop a little down the street as he spotted her. He was casually leaning against a wall, mouth playing with a senbon, when she reached him and he pushed off the wall to walk the short distance to her entrance through the compound-wall.

"So, not a mesu no Kitsune after all, but a Hyou-chan" he drawled, quirking his eye-brow enquiringly at her 'But still as mischievous as ever if that smile is anything to go by' he thought to himself. He was gauging her reaction to see if she knew it was him in Lightning; so far she didn't look very surprised.

Aya didn't miss a beat as they came to a stop by the entrance "You're not much of a Karasu yourself, Genma. Or maybe you are; you do seem to love playing with shiny things with that mouth of yours" she said, twinkling eyes almost daring him to respond as she pushed open the gate leading into the garden.

So he did; placing one arm on the doorjamb over her shoulder and leaning in closer to look straight into her eyes "Not sure; I can think of a few un-shiny things that mouth of mine would love to play with too" he said, said mouth swirling the senbon around with its tongue and sending Aya's mind straight into the gutter. 'Damn me for wondering what else he can do with that agile tongue of his' she thought. As the look in her eyes subtly changed, Genma could almost taste the victory and was sure this round would go to him.

At that moment however, they heard Kyoko shouting "Is that you by the gate, Aya-chan? We were just leaving, but I left tea and some dango out for you", so the gorgeous little minx just smiled innocently up at him and ducked under his arm. Before closing the gate behind her, he heard her say "I'll believe it when I see it. Oyasumi Karasu-kun".

'That sounded a lot like a challenge to my ears' Genma smirked. As he walked home he contemplated the fact that she had once again managed to leave him slightly frustrated. He didn't particular care; he was really enjoying this little game of theirs.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to someone else, I just play around with the world he made :)

**Kaze no Uchiha**

Her second day in Konoha saw Aya working at turning the house into her home, and that meant redecorating. But first she summoned Sora, since the talkative falcon had been dreadfully curious about her summoner's house, which was by extension her second home too. As she listened to the falcon's chatter, she considered the place:

Her parents had originally moved into the house by the compound wall for multiple reasons: one was the little gate giving them direct access to the rest of Konoha, another was the privacy the smaller wall surrounding the grounds afforded them, and a third the big garden, that Kyoko and Nobuo kept in check. But their primary reason was that the house fitted them in size, not haven been built with lots of children in mind. Its size fitted Aya quite nicely too, and she loved the little improvement that had been made.

Her home was built in much the same style as the rest of the compound: fairly traditional, with floors in smooth dark wood. It had a veranda running around it and was built with two floors. The front door lead into a hallway with stairs on the left side. First door on the left held a big bathroom and second door on the left was after the stairs and held a large kitchen, which opened into the biggest room in the house, the living room, where the door at the end of the hallway also led. The living room had a wide shoji-door with glass squares and lead out onto the veranda turned toward the garden and the private gate to the rest of Konoha. First and second doors on the right led to two rooms, one the office and the other her own old room.

The first floor was a lot smaller than the ground level and held one single enormous bedroom, with a wide shoji-door and a window on the opposite side. The door lead out onto a wooden deck, which was railed in and the roof covered it, so it was almost a room without walls.

The improvements included a cabin for steam baths built in beside the big tub in the bathroom, a modern kitchen with a bar running along the kitchen counter dividing the kitchen from the living room, a tremendous amount of closet-space for clothes in the bedroom, and last but not least, they had made sure there was one window in every room; three in the living room actually.

One of the first changes Aya made was to remove the tatami mats, instead placing multiple soft colorful patterned carpets around the house. She had seen them on her travels and fallen in love, buying several and sealing them away. She kept the low dining table, but put it up on the deck with pillows to sit on and placed a new high table with chairs in its place: to the left of the shoji-door, by the kitchen. The comfy couch and ditto two chairs stayed only with new colorful pillows and rugs, as did the low dark table between them; it all now stood on one of her carpets. Shelves and cabinets stayed as well, but her collection of books and things from her travels moved in together with some of her parent's things. The same with pictures and art; moving it around, storing some of it away and introducing her own stuff. Some of her weapons-collection was displayed on the walls around the house, especially beautiful tessen in all sizes.

She planned on making her old room into a home-workspace for designing, storing and working on projects. The office that doubled as library would be updated, old ledgers and other business-related things sealed away so it didn't take up as much space, and scrolls pertaining to her shinobi- and artisan-skills stored there instead.

Upstairs the bed, pillows and blankets were replaced, since it would just be too weird sleeping in her parents'. She chose a huge soft bed, with hangings that could be closed, as she had plenty space for it. A good part of her wardrobe moved in, but she kept some of her Kaasan's, like she also kept the table and stool by the windows, that she had used for putting on makeup and the like. The many mirrors also stayed. Outside on the deck she hung up a very comfy swing-chair, ideal for reading in.

Kyoko helped Aya pot a massive amount of flowers, herbs and even some little trees, which they placed around the house, on the veranda and on the deck. The ones on the veranda either hung from the rafters or were in large pots, while the ones for the deck were in long flowerboxes hung on the rails, with a few in pots on the deck itself.

She would leave the garden to Kyoko and Nobuo, since she was happy as long as she had her small training-field, soft grass and multiple large old trees.

All in all she was very much satisfied when she went to sleep that night.

Over the first week Aya further settled in and familiarized herself with the village. She wrote to her lawyer to make sure all her letters were rerouted to her address in Konoha, sent off her own letters to friends like Yukihana-Okaa-san and generally got her things in order.

A couple of times she had noticed Itachi's otouto spying, but he hadn't made himself known, so she chose to respect this. After all, if Sasuke remembered her it would be as Itachi's close friend or the clan-member that wasn't a real Uchiha, both of which probably woke conflicting feelings in him concerning her presence at the compound. Honestly she wasn't sure how she should handle or approach him either, knowing what she did – she refused to hide her treasured pictures of Itachi-kun and her, the same way she would never put away those of Obito or her parents.

During the week she also met up with Iruka multiple times, had her Saru-jii-san over for dinner, said hello to Hayate, scouted a bit for a place to set up a workshop and went shopping. It was on one of her shopping excursions she saw Naruto again and witnessed the way he was treated as an 'it'. She observed unseen for a while, becoming increasingly angry at how cruel the normally nice villagers were to the boy. They overcharged him, chased him off or simply refused acknowledge his existence. The part that really hurt her heart was that Naruto acted as if this was completely normal. 'I'm not sure I would have been able to stop at pranking these people like Naruto does' she thought darkly. So as to not let her temper get the best of her, she followed the kid toward his home, catching up to him just before he reached the apartment-building.

"Konnichiwa Naruto-kun, how are you?" she greeted him, putting on a smile for his sake.

"Ah, Aya-Onee-san! Just great, I was just gonna put this stuff in my apartment and go train" Naruto answered. Aya was not fooled by the bright, but fake smile. She let it slip, instead inquiring "Oh, are you meeting up with one of your friends from the Academy?", Naruto's fake smile didn't waver as he said "No, I'm much more serious than those lazy bums, so I'm gonna go practice and become the best at hitting the target by myself, believe it!".

Aya made her decision and she didn't care if anyone saw her with what they viewed as being the demon-container or demon itself.

"I believe it, with that determination you are sure to succeed" she said, her smile not entirely fake anymore, and in response Naruto's also became more real. "But you know, I think that often a training partner will spot little mistakes better than oneself. So why don't you borrow my garden for your training today? There's a throwing range there and I do have basic shinobi-training, so I could probably help correct your aim. This way we can keep each other company, since I was planning on enjoying the weather out there anyway, while getting some much needed maintenance on my weapons collection done." It wasn't strictly a lie; she had noted that some of Otousan's old weapons were getting dull and they were technically part of her collection now.

The genuinely joyful expression that overtook the kid's face made her resolve to do something like this at least once a week from now on. While Naruto expressed his excitement and happily chatted to her, she followed him up and into his apartment, noting how in was in disrepair and had old graffiti around the door. As the blond hastily put away his purchases she discretely threw away some very outdated things and made a mental note that she would definitely be shopping for him in the future; she saw only mountains of instant ramen and a bit of bread in his cupboards 'No wonder he seemed a little on the short side with this diet!' she thought. Depending on how Kyoko reacted to the boy's presence in the house, it might be a good idea to ask her to teach him how to cook just a little… Aya could of course do it herself, but Kyoko was brilliant and if she took a liking to Naruto, he would gain a sort of grandmotherly figure. 'One that won't stop bugging him until she is sure he is living healthily' she thought, smiling fondly at the memories of the stubborn caretaker.

As they reached her home, Naruto was suitable impressed, declaring it to be "Nice!". He also saw the Uchiha-fan that decorated the gate, remarking that it looked like the ones his classmate Sasuke had on his clothes, so what was it?

Aya had in the mean time noticed that said classmate was again spying, 'Wasn't exactly how I thought I was going to introduce myself, but oh well…'

Out loud she said "That's because it's the same; that fan is the Uchiha clan-symbol. You can see that crest throughout this area, since it is the Uchiha-compound, were all the Uchiha used to live. Come to think of it, I never did properly introduce myself, did I?" Naruto shook his head no "Well, better late than never. My name is Uchiha Aya"

The blond kid face screwed up, obviously thinking about something. "But then why do they call him the last Uchiha?" he asked curiously. Up in a tree Aya could feel the little spy lean a little closer in anticipation of her answer.

"Well for one I don't look much like an Uchiha, since I was adopted into the clan when my parents took me in at three. Hence I don't have the Uchiha-blood or kekkei genkai. Another reason is that I have only been in the village very rarely since my parents died, which was prior to the massacre by the way, and then there is the fact that I am civilian. Of course all children in the clan received some degree of shinobi training, but most people picture Uchiha as career-shinobi, so they connect only Sasuke-kun and Itachi-kun to the name. Of those two only Sasuke remains in the village, making him the last real Uchiha in their minds."

"But that's so stupid! They accepted you, so everyone else should too!" The blond exclaimed.

Aya smiled at seeing him get agitated on her behalf, then said "Naruto-kun, it's okay. I'd much rather have people get to know me before they learn of my family. I find that I see more of their real selves that way, and if they suddenly change after hearing my full name, then they aren't worth the trouble. That's not to say I hide it, because I really am proud of the name my parents gave me, but it comes with a lot of pressure. Sasuke-kun most likely fights a daily battle not to drown in his own and other's expectations to him, not being allowed to show weakness. I would give him a place to get away from the pressure, like I did his brother, but I'm not sure he would react well to me offering it given what Itachi-kun did." Aya was mostly talking to Sasuke toward the end, making it clear to him by looking straight toward his position.

"I think I get it, he's like me, only opposite" Naruto said seriously, as she felt Sasuke flee.

"Exactly. But enough with all this; I'm going to go get my weapons and gear and you should start practicing. The range is right that way, I'll join you in a bit" she told him, smiling.

As she went into the house through the shoji-door in the living room, she looked toward one of her pictures. It was of her and Itachi, one of the few where the camera had caught him smiling. Kyoko had snatched the picture when she visited briefly two years after Otousan passed away. Itachi must have been 12 and she 18 at the time, him lying with his head in her lap while she played with his hair per usual. 'Ne Itachi, do you think I did the right thing not confronting your dear otouto directly?' she thought. Then she went to get the katana and kunai she was planning on sharpening, picking up some chilled lemonade for her and Naruto on the way out.

It didn't take her much observing before she concluded that, either Naruto was completely hopeless with weapons or else someone hadn't taught him properly 'Somehow I'm betting on the last' she thought resignedly 'No time like now I guess'.

Aya never got back to her weapons maintenance that day. She found that Naruto wasn't particularly slow at learning, he just learned with his body. Which meant she was right; some teacher had either done an exceedingly poor job or done a really good one deliberately sabotaging the kid. Therefore she moved on to testing his taijutsu, correcting his stances as they went. They ended up going at it until evening, where she declared that she wasn't doing anymore training before she got food. Then she proceeded to drag him into the kitchen and made him help her cook, determined that he should eat something that actually held chunks of meat and vegetables instead of just traces of it.

It was getting late when they were done eating, so Aya found one of her Otousan's old shirts and told Naruto that he could just crash on her couch; she would wake him up in time for the school. When he was tucked in, she picked up his clothes and decided that at least the pants and t-shirt weren't fit for wear the next day. 'But where do I get boy-clothes from?' she thought, until her eyes fell on a picture of Obito and she smiled 'Might as well check, it isn't very far'.

"Naruto-kun, I'm going to see if I can find you some wearable clothes for tomorrow, so I'm going out for a little while" she said, only getting a half-asleep grunt for answer.

Next day Naruto shocked Iruka and Kakashi both without even intending to. Iruka because the only orange he wore was his open jacket, Kakashi because he could swear it was Obito's blue uniform he was wearing, 'Complete with metal plating at the end of the long sleeves and even the white belt, he's only missing the jacket' he thought, walking toward the memorial stone 'I wonder if Aya has something to do with this?'


	11. Chapter 11

[Insert disclaimer]

**Kaze no Uchiha**

Aya was actually planning on finding Iruka that day and have a talk about Naruto's training, but she was completely sidetracked when Kenji appeared. She was running through her katas when she sensed him 'And is that Ferret still with him?' she wondered, as she checked the area for observers and then said "You could join me for a quick spar instead of standing up there Kenji-kun, there aren't any observers around at the moment".

She continued her katas until the masked nin appeared. He took of his mask without being asked to and set down the white ferret, which was hiding under his cloak, before standing in his taijutsu stance. They didn't talk during their spar, but Aya could tell his concentration wasn't completely on it. She therefore chose to end it by asking "Do you want to come inside and tell me what's on your mind instead?", getting a nod in return.

"Are we friends?" Kenji finally asked. Aya looked at him surprised and he elaborated "I read that friends help each other. And a really good friend will do what is in their friend's best interest without being asked to, sometimes even if their friend doesn't agree at the time or without them ever knowing. We have concluded that that is what you did for me and Jenki. And I think that is what we did when we did not mention anything but your basic ninja-skills in our report. We left out information, because we concluded it would be hurtful to you and that made a very unpleasant sensation appear in our stomach-areas. We did not report that our observation methods had changed either, nor our new experiences as you called them, because of a different but still unpleasant sensation at the time. You told us we should listen to our gut-feeling. Is that what it was? I am confused. So I want to know: are we friends?"

Aya was left stunned by hearing him talk so much, but feeling happy as a weight was lifted from her shoulders 'They actually protected themselves and even me from Danzo! I'm so glad, there is still hope for them' she thought.

"I would love to be both you and Jenki's good friend, Kenji" she said, smiling warmly.

The next many hours she spent explaining different feelings and concepts that Kenji or Jenki had read about. They stopped when Kenji had to go on patrol, but he asked her to feed Ferret and they agreed that he would convey her answers to Jenki, who would visit her next time they could manage it. The last thing she did was to make him promise that they would act like they had done before she named them whenever someone from their organization was present, but not forget how to be themselves.

As she watched him speed of Aya thought 'I'm so glad those two managed to keep contact somehow' then she looked down at Ferret, who was looking up at her, and wondered out loud "Now what in the worlds am I going to do with you?"

After two weeks in the village Aya had found the perfect place for her workshop. It was near the main shopping road, but more importantly, in the same area as a various shops that sold to primarily shinobi. She had even gotten the village's best weapons smith interested in collaborating, so they would be bouncing ideas off each other every so often and help out each other with parts of a weapon that the other was better equipped to handle. After all, they weren't even in direct competition, since Aya didn't make standard issue weapons if she could help it and specialized in weapons that were hiding in plain sight. She would also make jewelry and fans that didn't serve any purpose but being decorative. The workshop and display room had been drawn up quickly after she bought the place, so now she was just waiting for the work crew to finish it. In fact she had just come from there, when she decided to swing by the memorial on her way home that day.

There she found Kakashi, lost in his thoughts once again. She went and placed her flowers down and touched Obito's name. After a while she said "Ne Oikko-kun, I think your friend Kakashi has been avoiding me. Two weeks and he hasn't even said hello – I wonder why that is?"

Behind her said nin was looking suitable embarrassed 'Has it already been two weeks?', then he said "Ah gomen, I got lost on the road of life. You see first there was this old lady…" Here he trailed of, remembering who he was talking to. Aya turned and looked just a bit incredulously at him, like saying 'You have got to be kidding me'.

Kakashi sighed "I wasn't sure you would want me around. Do you know how I came to possess the sharingan?" She nodded, saying "But you could join me for tea now and tell me your side of the story, to make up for some of the avoiding you've been doing if nothing else" Aya figured he wouldn't believe she really knew and forgave him until he had told her himself and it would probably be healthy for him to talk about it out loud anyway. 'When she puts it like that there is no way I can refuse' he thought ruefully.

And so it was that Kakashi found himself sitting in her living room later that evening, listening to Iruka and Aya chatter while they made dinner. 'How did it even end up like this?' a much relieved Kakashi thought, trying to make sense of it:

After getting to her house just inside the compound walls, Aya had made the promised tea and sat him down on a bench on the veranda. She had then patiently listened as he poured his heart out, only asking a few questions along the way. And pour out it did; once the walls keeping it all in had been breached, he found himself telling her not only about the mission that ended in Obito's death, but also about his remaining teammate's, Obito's beloved Rin, death by his hand later and even about his father's suicide. 'Why do I trust her so?' he wondered, but was proven right to do so by her reaction.

Throughout it all, what he saw in her eyes was quiet acceptance and sympathy, never the contempt he was half-anticipating. When he was finally done she looked him in the eyes and said "I forgive you. Obito made a choice that day and died the way he would have wanted to; protecting his comrades with all he had. I know he was happy that he was able to give you that one last gift before he passed on. That was simply the way my Oikko-kun was. He would have been so proud at everything you have achieved, in fact he is most likely boasting about how his eye helped you along the way. I won't lie to you and pretend he wouldn't have been devastated that Rin had to die, but he would have raged at the enemies that forced you to do it yourself. Can you believe me when I say this?"

Kakashi managed a nod, as he found he was too choked up to answer verbally. The rest of the day trickled away as they recalled Obito together, Aya getting out pictures of the two, telling about their story and how his death had fueled her determination to achieve both their dreams. She even showed him the letter Minato-sensei had sent her and he let her study his sharingan. He found it refreshing that she wasn't the least bit unnerved at looking straight into it, but was just a bit incredulous when she absentmindedly remarked that she had been resisting sharingan-cast genjutsu since she was but a child. He quickly forgot about that again however, when he noticed how close she actually was and how good her hand felt on his face. 'She smells very nice too' he thought. He had already realized this back in Earth country; it made him think of a fresh summer breeze and dancing flames, mixed with something distinctly female and very much her.

That was when Iruka had knocked and she merrily invited him to join the two of them for dinner, going to the kitchen before Kakashi could actually answer.

So now he was sitting in the living room, listening to the noises from the kitchen. 'Well at least there are lots of things to look at in here' he thought, looking around. Exquisite weapons hung on display alongside beautiful fans, which he suspected was actually tessen. But it was the pictures that really caught his interest as he stood up, walking to get a closer look at some of them.

He of course recognized the ones with Obito and Iruka, and he saw several with a couple he guessed to be Uchiha Susumu and Yui, but there was also many with people he had no idea who was; different geisha, maiko and people in workshops. He had to admit that his eyes seemingly automatically focused on Aya in all these 'How the hell did I not notice her before she saved my ass?' he wondered as he moved on to the next picture. Here his gaze froze 'Isn't that?' Looking closer he had to conclude that yes, it was Uchiha Itachi, and yes he was in fact smiling. It looked relatively recent too, Itachi must have been at least twelve and already a hardened ANBU. But that wasn't what the picture showed; instead he was lying looking more relaxed than Kakashi had ever seen him, while Aya played with his hair, both of them obviously amused or happy at something. As his eyes moved on he found multiple older pictures of the two, even one were Aya was giving a younger Itachi a piggy-back ride 'Younger, but at least eight and experienced genin. And is that pocky sticking out of his mouth?' Kakashi shook his head to clear it. 'I wouldn't believe it if I wasn't seeing it. But how can she bear to look at these pictures after the massacre? And come to think of it, didn't she call him Itachi-kun that night?' He had to admit, he had been a bit distracted with his realization of her being a precious person of Obito's at the time, but he had at least stored the information away 'Something about Itachi writing her to stay away. That really doesn't sound like someone testing his capacity, especially if he knew about Aya not being all that civilian' he thought, but was distracted from this line of thought when said woman called him to the table.

It was a fun evening following the dinner. Out of ingrained habit he pulled out his Icha Icha and learned that Aya apparently didn't mind him reading it – as long as he didn't do it at the table, where he was supposed to be socializing. In fact she was rather curious about it, causing both him and Iruka quite a bit of embarrassment. It was only when he noticed the mischievous glint in her eyes he realized she was doing it on purpose, at which point he took up the challenge. None of them came out as the clear victor, but Iruka's reactions alone made it worth it. In fact he was still blushing furiously when she walked them to the gate and locked it after them.

That night Kakashi slept through the night for the first time in two weeks.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me...

**Kaze no Uchiha**

It was Naruto who finally broke the status quo between Aya and Sasuke, and he did it in usual Naruto-style, not caring anything for manners. He actually dragged the self-proclaimed avenger with him to visit her, though not before running him into the ground during a spar, helped along by his ridiculous stamina and improved taijutsu. He vehemently insisted that Sasuke was an idiot for refusing his family when he actually had some. Especially when that family was Aya-Onee-san, who accepted people as they were and didn't give a damn about other's opinion of a person.

The first time they came around Sasuke refused to enter the house, sulking at the veranda. Then the second time he joined Naruto in angrily hurdling weapons at targets, still not going into the house or saying anything to their host. But gradually it became a kind of tradition, him being dragged here once a week with Naruto, either after a spar or sometimes to avoid his fan-girls. In truth it was deeply unsettling experience for Sasuke, to suddenly meet a person who genuinely didn't give a damn about his clan, and who treated him and dobe the same.

Despite himself he found himself relaxing around her and grudgingly admitted that he could understand why Nii-san might have liked to come here. Like she had said, it was a place without any pressure. Slowly he went from being dragged there to walking there along with Naruto, from always training by himself to joining in when Naruto trained there and from staying outside to accepting her dinner-invitation. It was before one such dinner that he saw the pictures of his Nii-san, got angry and left. He didn't come back for two weeks, but in the end he let himself be dragged there again.

Unwillingly he had to respect her steadfastness; she didn't apologize or attempt to explain herself to him, leaving the pictures where they were. One day he found his feet moving towards her house without the dobe accompanying him. Once there he bluntly asked her why. His respect for her rose a little higher when she answered just as bluntly "Because Itachi-kun is one of my precious persons and I trust in the people precious to me" There wasn't even a trace of doubt or regret in her eyes as she said it. When he lost it and raged at how she could still say that after what Nii-san had done, she looked at him unflinchingly and stated "I know Itachi-kun better than most Sasuke-kun, that's why", in such a way that he actually got the impression that she was a bit disappointed in him. After he had cooled down enough to think straight, he wondered at this and her wording 'She said know instead of knew'. Somehow he couldn't imagine the redhead condoning mass-murder no matter who did it, at least not without extremely good reason. Sasuke entered the house again at this thought, demanding she tell him what she knew that he didn't. As she answered, he got the distinct impression that she was proud of him, but also saw a profound sorrow enter her eyes when the words left her mouth "I cannot".

That was when Naruto arrived and training began. But on his way home he mulled over her words in his thoughts 'She didn't say that there isn't something I don't know, only that she couldn't tell me. And what was up with that look as she said it?' After much thinking he decided that he would give her a chance, since he realized he really did respect her a lot despite her non-shinobi status and would miss coming over with Naruto. Not that he would ever even dream of admitting it out loud.

Over the next year the three settled into a routine. Every morning the two boys would come over and do their katas while she did hers, a lot like how Aya had done it with her Otousan most of her life. Then they would run off to the Academy and she would get some work done at the workshop. Once or twice a week they would come over to train and usually eat with her.

Kyoko had quickly gotten past the whole Kyubi-versus-Kyubi's-jailor thing and taken both boys under her wing, teaching them to cook and other house-related skills. Naruto was almost as tall as Sasuke now, the mostly proper food having boosted his growth. The best change however, was the two boys' bond; it had strengthened into a brother-like rivalry, meaning they competed endlessly, but helped each other out a lot too. A minor but welcome change, was that Aya had had managed to weed out most of the eye-watering orange from Naruto's wardrobe over time, replacing it with sets a lot like the one she had borrowed from Obito's old wardrobe.

Other bonds had also developed, one of which was Kakashi's to Aya. It became a sort of habit for them to relax together, sometimes with each their book, others with one of them working on something and others again, with one of them half-asleep, head resting on the other. They also began to train together quite often, with him booking a remote training field for them to trash. Already at their first training-session he found out that it was nigh on impossible to copy her jutsu, since he could barely see her chakra at all, especially when she used the wind around them.

Kakashi was impressed that she had managed to overcome her initial challenges so well, turning them into strengths by creating her own jutsu using nature- and shape-transformation. After she had really mastered her fire-affinity, she had actually managed to recreate quite a few of the fire-jutsu favored by her clan, plus some other ones. To this came her vast arsenal of wind-natured ones and when she combined the two, the result were extremely destructive. This was the reason they most often didn't bring out their big ninjutsu, instead sticking to sparring matches to keep the training field intact. They did this a lot and Kakashi was proved right in his assumption that her fans were in fact tessen. More often than not the jounin had to unveil his sharingan to counter her speed – Aya had both gotten faster and ridiculously good at manipulating the wind to the point of almost eliminating the air-resistance, or even giving her a boost, since it had been one of the few things she could effectively train while travelling – but he had to admit he really didn't mind having the sight of her body's graceful movements burned into his memories.

In armed battle and ninjutsu they were about equally matched depending on the circumstances, since he had a massive advantage knowing jutsu from multiple elements. In pure taijutsu he would have been the better of them, but seeing as she always had her wind and wind-chakra claws at her disposal, it never really was pure taijutsu. She held the advantage in stealth, speed, keeping track of his whereabouts and in that she wouldn't exhaust her chakra nearly as fast as him. He on the other hand, held the advantage in tactical thinking, trap-setting, battle instincts, tracking her by scent and pure experience. They both had something like extra senses; Kakashi the sharingan, that ensured he could see her rapid movements, and his great sense of smell, while Aya had her wind-sense. Only Kakashi could perform genjutsu, but that being said it wasn't really much of an advantage given her throughout training and natural advantages against them; it was damn hard to effectively target the chakra-flow in her brain when one couldn't even sense her chakra in the first place and even when succeeding he couldn't affect the sense she relied on above all others. All in all she could keep him on his toes and they both got a lot out of it, though Aya clearly learned the most from him and benefitted tremendously from having regular sparring matches with someone she could test herself against. It was the biggest hole in her training after her Otousan passed, since all the katas and jutsu in the world wouldn't do her any good if she couldn't apply them against an opponent. Luckily she had fought smart and somehow managed to build up just enough experience against weaker foes that she had been able to handle Kenji and Jenki when they first engaged her, with her steadily improving with every one of their following 'sparring' matches and the occasional mission-related fight or nuke-nin encounter she survived. Still, she was determined to never get so sloppy in her training again if she could help it.

Their training wasn't all fighting however, as Kakashi would often help Aya develop or perfect her jutsu. Because of her chakra resisting manipulation by way of hand-seals they couldn't take any short cuts, making it a process of trial and error. Often the two would meet up after having seen something that inspired one of them, using hours to bounce off ideas at each other and testing them during training, until they were satisfied with the results. Her latest jutsu for instance, was in essence the Gatsuga of the Inuzuka clan, only augmented with cutting wind-chakra. She had also developed two different versions of shields made up from rapidly spinning winds, with one being a tightly controlled whirlwind and the other a disc that could be a varying size. She was currently working on making said disc keep its shape so that she could throw it like a shuriken and increasing the number of discs. Another project was for when no allies were near and she needed space during a fight, since it was essentially a mass of extremely compressed that would blast her opponents off their feet when released, letting her escape the danger of being surrounded. That one was well on its way to being applicable as a projectile too.

In short, she had a ridiculous number of ways to cut, slice, dice, shred, rip, blow away, explode or burn things. Sometimes she found it a bit unnerving how destructive her two affinities were, especially together, but figured it was balanced by the little things she could create with them too, as she used both in her work as artisan.

Aya trained with Genma too, improving her mastery of senbon, taijutsu and having a lot of fun. Their little game continued, even as they became fast friends. Genma convinced her to meet up with him and his friends, so her sphere of shinobi acquaintances expanded to include Maito Gai, Yuuhi Kurenai, Sarutobi Asuma, Mitarashi Anko, Hagane Kotetsu, Kamizuki Izumo and Namiashi Raido among others.

Well actually, in Asuma's case is was more of a renewal of their acquaintance, since she had met him at the Fire Daimyo's court as Honoohime multiple times. He was delighted to have someone to talk to about his time there, one who had actually met the people he mentioned at that.

She also met Hayate's girlfriend Uzuki Yugao and his former teammate, Morino Ibiki. Through helping her Saru-jii-san she met a lot of the clan-heads, but she didn't know them per see.

Aided by her new friends' interest, her workshop quickly became the place to go if one had an undercover mission. Konoha's kunoichi especially loved her things and therefore their men came there to buy them gifts. She got quite a few special orders too, on the account that she was skilled and didn't charge extra for it, since frankly she enjoyed these projects the most.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I still only own my OC's :)

**Kaze no Uchiha**

As promised Kenji and Jenki visited as often as they could without arousing suspicion, steadily becoming more 'human' and gradually developing their own opinions. They were continuously evolving and Jenki especially was very good at bending their orders, as long it didn't endanger the village. That was how Aya found herself in the surreal situation of pretending to be a root-operative patrolling with Jenki, while said nin told her what he could about ROOT.

The reasoning Jenki had employed to get around their secrecy was very backwards, involving a lot of free interpretation. He wasn't allowed to talk about or mention the organization to the uninitiated unless being ordered to by Danzo-sama. But Jenki reasoned that Danzo-sama always did what was best for the village, no matter how distasteful it was, and had created the organization for this reason. Therefore he should, as a member of this organization, strive to do the same, even if he had to act to protect it from said organization. Furthermore he concluded that the village wouldn't exist in any meaningful form without its people, so they had to be protected. The one charged with protecting the people was the Hokage, meaning he made the decisions these people's security depended on. Withholding crucial information about the village's shinobi force was a security-risk, as he could not make the right decisions if it was based on bad information. It was his duty to correct this breach in security and the most effective way to do this was to inform the Hokage. He could however not do this himself, since it was unlikely that the issue could be resolved immediately and this fact made having an operative inside the organization necessary. Should he be seen near the Hokage without being ordered there, he would be killed and Kenji's loyalties probed, which would seriously hinder said person's ability to find information too. The logical solution was to use a middle-man without any connection to Danzo-sama, one that could be trusted to only report the information to the Hokage, and one that the Hokage would believe. Aya lived up to all of those criteria. She could also be considered to live up to ROOT's core view of itself, being an unseen one who supported the great tree of Konoha from the depths of the earth, since she served the village with only the Hokage knowing it. She already knew about ROOT, who they reported to and was currently wearing the uniform while performing a mission for the organization. This shouldn't have been possible if she wasn't initiated, so it followed that he was in fact not going against his orders, when he talked to her in order to do what was best for the village.

That this arrangement allowed his brother, Kenji, to spend time with his pet was just an added bonus.

It was only years of hearing politicians and officials talk circles around each other that allowed Aya to somewhat follow the convoluted argument.

During the patrol Jenki told her what he could about being raised and conditioned to have no personality, name or personal connections, killing the one closest to them to complete their emotional conditioning and finally how the organization only answered to Danzo-sama. He also showed her the cursed seal all operatives had on their tongue, preventing them from ever disclosing information about said person. She could see how he struggled to reveal even that much.

After Aya reported her findings to the Sandaime, he set in motion a longsighted plan concerning ROOT. He first recruited her to help identify members of the organization, since she was one of the few he could be sure Danzo couldn't influence and because she would be able to recognize members even after only seeing them in uniform. He then called in Nara Shikaku to a private meeting, explaining the situation to him and assigning him the mission of basically unraveling the mess. Shikaku, needless to say, found it all very troublesome and wanted to know whom he would be working with.

"I will introduce you to an operative of mine, who will brief you on her findings. During this mission she will also be supplying identities of possible operatives along the way, to give you more to work with. I am completely confident in her loyalty," – 'After all, she already knows a good chunk of Konoha's ugliest S-class secrets and still hasn't deserted' Hiruzen thought to himself – "so I ask that you have the same, even though you won't be able to verify her identity. Other than that, I trust your judgment on who to recruit for this mission, Shikaku"

Then he called in Aya, who was in the guise of Kurohyou and wearing a voice-distorter to protect her civilian identity. When the privacy-seals were up, he said "This is Kurohyou, Kurohyou meet Nara Shikaku. Please brief him on everything you have found about ROOT and their operatives, every little detail could be crucial".

When Aya got home that night, she fell like a boneless pile onto the couch, mentally exclaiming 'Finally! Having Shikaku milk your brain for information isn't something I will ever wish on anyone'

But at least now something was being done and they had the beginnings of a plan. Saru-jii-san was trying to reach Jiraiya, as they planned on having him look at the cursed seal, possibly while she was taking the place of either Kenji or Jenki. 'Probably Kenji, since we are closer in height' she mused

Until then Aya would be perfecting her ROOT-persona, slowly getting the other operatives subconsciously used to the extra operative. It helped that none of them formed any bonds to each other or knew all other operatives. Kenji and Jenki would also be showing her where the ROOT-chambers were located, so that she could keep a figurative eye out for signature-presences entering it. When she was ready she planned on faking a trip somewhere, while she was in reality infiltrating the chambers. Her unnoticeable chakra, sensing- and stealth-skills made her uniquely suited for the mission. This would however not be before she was prepared to handle the traps sure to be there and Jiraiya-sama had figured out if the cursed seal perhaps functioned as verification of identity too.

It wasn't long after the first meeting that Kakashi was brought in on the mission too, with one of his jobs being to prepare her for the aforementioned traps 'Joy, now Kakashi actually has a reason to trash me with those traps of his' she thought miserably. And he did, mercilessly drilling her.

To himself Kakashi admitted that he was probably being more throughout than strictly necessary, but the thought of her infiltrating the equivalent of the ANBU-headquarters made his heart clench with worry.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

**Kaze no Uchiha**

Outside of the long term mission to uncover ROOT everything continued more or less as it had the past year.

Aya celebrated her twenty-first birthday among friends. First when Nobuo, Kyoko, Naruto and Sasuke came over with breakfast and then when Saru-jii-san brought lunch. Kakashi came over a little later, bringing his gift or gifts: he had bought her all the Icha Icha-books that were currently published, since she found them very entertaining. It was a completely sincere gift with no perverted thoughts behind it, but somehow he knew he would never hear the end of it from his friends, should they find out. Therefore he delivered it when no one else was with her. It had absolute nothing to do with him enjoying being alone with her and he certainly didn't stay because of how adorable he found her as she excitedly opened her presents.

'A lot of presents, seemingly from all over the world' he mused, looking at the mount. There were some really interesting things mixed in with the more mundane too. For instance she got a contraption consisting of a board and some kind of stiff sail. The card on that one said that they should go windsurf next time she came to Water, so he assumed that was what it was intended for. The Daimyo of Lightning country of all people, had also sent a present; a complete geisha outfit – like really complete, including everything down to hair ornaments and geta – magnificently decorated and held in white, silver and blue colors. Even their own Daimyo had sent a gift to Honoohime-chan; a large wall-hanging depicting a beautiful garden in intricate detail, that should apparently remind her of her time spent at court 'What's next, the Earth country's Daimyo?' he wondered, then continued his exploration. There was a lot of interesting weapons, jewelry and the like, but it was the present from someone called Maya that caught his attention next. Specifically it was the card, which begged her to wear her gift when she went out to celebrate tonight, since she had totally caught such a hunk the last time this Maya had picked out a dress for her. Kakashi frowned, then looked at the gift and admitted to himself that he was going to have his work cut out for him tonight. If it had been any other woman wearing it he would have thought it looked very nice, but as it was the words 'I'm doomed' ran through his head on repeat. Especially when he spotted the silvery high heels that went with the dress 'So doomed'.

He was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard wings flap and saw Aya reaching out her arm to form a perch where a crow landed 'Wait a minute, crow? Her summons are falcons' he thought. Then his memory kicked in 'Itachi!' and he flew to his feet, just as the crow dispelled. Aya looked decidedly non-alarmed and said "Oh relax, he was just delivering a present", proceeding to unwrap the small parcel while Kakashi moved over to stand behind her, just in case. He need not have worried. The card simply said:

_Happy birthday Aya. I had this made for my Oba-chan, to thank you for just being who you are - Tachi_

Aya smiled brilliantly as she read the card and saw the gift under it; a drop-shaped pendant on a long strong chain. The pendant was made from a single flame-colored gem, inlaid with black. What made it so special to her was the fact that it held something of both of them, with the black inlay forming Itachi's sharingan – his normal three tomoe and his Mangekyo – while the gem itself was the color of her eyes when using fire release. She smiled even wider when she noted the way Kakashi had relaxed behind her when he realized she wasn't in any danger.

Like Sasuke the silver-haired man had grudgingly come to accept that Aya still cared for Itachi, massacre or no, even though it made them dreadfully curious as to how she could 'Well, I guess this shows it goes both ways' Kakashi thought.

That evening some of Aya's friends came over to eat and drink before they all went out. Genma, Raido, Hayate, Yugao, Iruka, Gai, Asuma, Kurenai and Anko arrived dressed smartly and more or less civilian as agreed. Izumo and Kotetsu would join them later when they got off-duty. Kakashi, who had gone home to change, of course came a little later, but not by much.

As Aya hugged him hello like he hadn't been her most of the day, he concluded that yes, the dress was as bad as he feared. It was a deep dark blue color, went to just above her knees, hugged her every curve, revealed a considerable amount of her back and the V in the front showed off her perky c-cup very nicely, without being vulgar. She had paired it with a long chain with a pendant, an armband and earrings; all in silver, set with some dark blue gem and what looked like tiny diamonds. Her hair hung loose and the makeup was simple, accentuating her eyes, but those lips of hers looked way too kissable glistening like that. He could also see the silvery high heels were left out in preparation to be worn.

'So completely doomed' he thought resignedly. 'She looks gorgeous. And it seems like Genma agrees. That smile of his looks way too predatory for my taste'. He edged a bit closer to her unconsciously at that thought.

Genma was indeed enjoying the view very much and was looking forward to the next round of their little game. Contrary to Kakashi's beliefs however, he was not planning on pursuing the gorgeous redhead. Oh he definitely wouldn't say no to her if she wanted to take him home, but until then he would have fun driving Kakashi nuts, alternating between pushing them together and making him jealous as he flirted shamelessly with Aya. He had noticed the way he edged closer, but if the copy-nin didn't get his act together soon, he was going to lose her, since women like her wouldn't wait around for long.

When they had eaten and the drinking was well underway, Aya took a long moment to consider the two very handsome men. Genma looked much the same as he had as Karasu, only lighter, more playful and obviously self-confident; he knew he could give you a good time and it was very attractive. Kakashi on the other hand, cleaned up nicely and was looking damn hot, in her humble opinion at least. She could be biased, after all she had seen the face underneath that mask 'Which I kind of feel like ripping of him, but at least he left the forehead-protector at home' she thought. It was true; Kakashi had opted to just hold his one eye closed this evening and this in turn let his tousled silvery locks hang free in a way that made Aya wonder why on earth he didn't do that more often, since that look made her finger itch to run her fingers through it. He had on black pants and shoes together with a black dress shirt, which was left unbuttoned by the collar and had the sleeves rolled up. The outfit really showed off his athletic build and muscle-toned body 'Almost as good as that time he had to strip down to his undershirt' she mused.

She was a bit conflicted in her feelings toward the jounin, though she was attracted to him and enjoyed his company immensely. She had caught him looking on occasion, but he hadn't done anything about it, so she was unsure as to what he felt about her. One thing was for sure; if he didn't make a move or at least let her know he wanted he, she would have to move on. She refused to moon after a man who didn't want her like the many fan girls he amazingly enough still had after years of projecting a lazy, perverted and chronically late image, while hiding behind his mask. Fan girls really were a tenacious species, she'd give them that…

When they moved the party to the bar, Hayate and Yugao begged off, but as agreed Izumo and Kotetsu joined them. It was actually a pretty big place that played good music and even had a real dance floor. Luckily they had reserved a booth large enough to hold them all, because the place was already filling up. They ended up sitting like this around the table: Raido, Genma, Aya, Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai, Anko, Iruka, Izumo, Kotetsu and finally Gai who had dragged a chair over, since he couldn't sit still in the booth. Soon they were drinking again and generally having a merry time. Of course didn't take long before Gai had challenged his eternal rival to a drinking game, disappearing up to the bar before he could decline. Kakashi sighed and then felt Aya laughing as she leaned on him. He was about to remark that she should join if she found his predicament so funny, but then she leaned closer and whispered into his ear 'Look across the table'. It took him a while to register what she had said, since her hot breath on his skin and her chest pressing against his arm distracted him, sending pleasurable tingles through his body. When it did, he looked over and saw a drunk Anko practically all over a blushing Iruka, who was simultaneously trying to avoid her licking his ear and catching her hands before they wandered under the table. Suddenly he felt much better about Gai's challenge.

That feeling disappeared as the green beast was returning, or more specifically when Genma pulled Aya out to dance. He kept an eye on them at first, but threw himself into the drinking contest when he saw how close they were dancing before they were hidden from his view.

Out on the dance floor Aya and Genma were having a lot of fun dancing and teasing each other. The many people around them had pushed them closer together, so close in fact, that Genma could feel his body responding. Which wasn't really what was supposed to happen, so he motioned her toward the bar, thinking 'Well this situation certainly feels familiar, might as well roll with it.' So when they reached the bar he proceeded to do the same thing as in Lightning; trapping her against the bar and leaning close to her ear and thereby her neck 'It still looks too damn tempting' he mused. But this time he instead said "So do you think they make Sex On The Bar here then?"

Eyes laughing Aya turned to him and leaned in close, lips almost touching his ear when she answered "I have no idea, let's go ask them". Which they did, but as they walked back to the table carrying drinks, Genma still couldn't quite comprehend how she had managed to be allowed behind the bar to "do it herself" as she said and winked at him. As they arrived at the table he saw that more people had joined them, leaving no open seats. Genma's eyes lit up with mischief as he thought 'You better thank me for this Kakashi', then he said "Well if they didn't hold our seats, we just have use them. I call the Raido-seat, you take the Kakashi one, Hyou-chan. He looks like he needs saving from Gai anyway – I distract him while you two come up with a plan". Aya's answering smile was positively devious.

Meanwhile at the table, Kakashi had become drunk. That was okay, since he wasn't a ridiculously loud drunk like Gai, who was actually dancing on his chair, declaring things about Youth at the top of his lungs. But the drunker he got, the more the alpha-male in him was pulling at its restraints, growling for him to get out there and find his lady. He knew there were good reasons he should try and resist, especially since she wasn't really his and he was drunk. The problem was that they just didn't sound very convincing to him right now, which made him think that it was likely for the best if he went home and sobered up, preferably before he did something stupid.

That was the exact moment the lady in question slid in to sit on his lap, making all his noble intentions void. His body automatically reacted by wrapping his arm around her middle and pulling her closer. Then her hot breath washed over his ear for the second time that evening and he heard her voice asking "So I guess this means you don't mind me sitting here?". Kakashi didn't answer right away, only pulled her closer and playfully nuzzled the side of her neck and filling his nose with her scent. "Don't know what gave you that idea" he finally said in a slightly husky voice – the inner beast was subdued now that she as there, but definitely not tamed.

The way he nuzzled her sensitive neck sent pleasurable tingles through Aya's body 'This is certainly new' she thought, noting the way his muscled arm tightened just a bit possessively, but without crushing or restraining her 'I think I like it' she purred in her thoughts. Then she remembered her little mission and leaned back, turning her head so she could talk into his ear "So how it that drinking challenge of yours going?" Kakashi looked at Gai and groaned, resting his head on her shoulder. Aya's hand came up to run through his hair, as she laughed and said "Thought so. Genma is running interference right now, but it is up to us to come up with a plan. Ideas?"

Kakashi was momentarily lost in the new sensation of her playing with his hair 'No wonder Itachi let her' he absently noted, then registered what she was saying and put his inebriated brain to use "The best bet is to drink him into a stupor. He won't be distracted from a challenge for long and even if I forfeit, he is just going to come up with a new one. The obvious problems with that solution however, is that I'll be just as drunk, perhaps more, and it'll take a while to accomplish" was what he came up with. She considered this "How about we add a twist to the challenge then? Kotetsu has cards with him, so we could play one of the drinking games I learned at the Okiya". Even drunk the silver-haired man vividly remembered how she had trashed him in card-games as Honoohime and eyed her suspiciously "Only if you do the playing and I do the drinking" he said. Aya smiled way too innocently at him and he reconsidered "On second thought; we both drink. That way you won't be tempted to throw the game. I'm not sure a want to know what a former master-pranker like you would do with two unconscious jounin at your mercy". She actually hadn't considered that 'And that sounded a lot like a challenge to my ears. Hmm, I bet I could think of a few things to do with one of those jounin…' she thought, but out loud she said "Deal".

While Kakashi proposed the new rules to Gai she thought 'Oh you are way too naïve if you think a little drinking will deter a trained geisha, my handsome friend' After all, customers constantly tried to get the beautiful ladies drunk, especially at some of the more rowdy banquets. A shiver of trepidation ran down the two jounins' spines right then, but one was way to youthful to acknowledge it, while the other was distracted by the view afforded him when he leaned forward to get hold of his beverage.


	15. Chapter 15

...Kakashi yumminess! :D

But no, neither him or any of the characters from Naruto are mine : /

**Kaze no Uchiha**

As Kakashi woke the next morning he groaned and wondered how he had even gotten home last night. He tried thinking back, but soon after the drinking game had started everything got decidedly foggy and he only got glimpses. His clearest impressions were sensations like the feeling of Aya sitting on his lap, the sound of her voice as she talked into his ear, a sharingan-clear picture of her eyes up close and the way his body responded as they danced close 'How the hell did she get me on the dance floor anyway?'. But the by far strongest impressions was the delicious scent that was all her and the way she felt when his arm wrapped around her, holding her warm body pressed into his chest 'In fact I can still almost feel it…' Then his body stiffened and he woke completely 'Scratch that, I am still feeling it'

When he opened his eye, his suspicions were confirmed. A certain red-haired beauty was lying all snuggled up to him, her back pressed against his chest and his arms wrapped around her body. Kakashi brain scrambled to deduce what exactly had happened. First he ascertained that yes, he was wearing his boxers, but his mask hung around his neck. Then he checked her and found she was wearing his dress shirt and under it she still had panties. He concluded that it was entirely possible that something involving at least heavy kissing had happened between them, but they probably hadn't gone the whole way. It was also possible that this was much more innocent that it looked. He was split between being relieved and disappointed at the conclusion. Disappointed because, if something important had happened he wanted to remember it, and if he had actually taken the plunge and made a move yesterday, it indicated that he had had to get very drunk to have the courage. There was also the fact that his performance would have been subpar, which really wasn't the impression he wanted to give her. Relieved because she was still there, so he couldn't have been a complete idiot and if something had happened he had at least finally taken the plunge and could make up for his drunken performance. If nothing had happened… 'Well, it would probably be for the best. People real close to me have a tendency to die on me and Obito would want her safe' he morosely thought. There was really only one way to find out; he had to ask her. But he didn't really want to wake her when she looked so peaceful. 'I should go make breakfast, maybe she'll wake up by herself then' he thought, slowly removing his arms and extricating himself from the blankets. Once standing he put on a pair of sweatpants and pulled up his mask. He needed a splash of cold water for his face and coffee, good strong coffee.

In the bed Aya stretched out her body then relaxed back on the bed. She had woken when Kakashi groaned, but chosen to stay still as she could almost hear his brain working overtime. She smiled mischievously 'He probably can't remember much of anything, which means obvious pranking-chance!' In truth nothing much had happened; they had gone here because it was closer than her house and cuddled a bit, nothing more. She had no problems whatsoever with drinking the two men into the ground, but she wouldn't abuse it like that, even if Kakashi's body language was screaming that he wanted her. She much preferred that he be fully aware when something happened between them and she had a hunch he felt the same way. Besides, she had been drunk too, so she had wanted to wait and see if she felt like giving him that kiss the morning after too. 'Time to find out' she decided, silently rolling out of the bed and tiptoeing over to the door leading to the tiny kitchen. 'Yummy' was the first thought that entered her mind, and it wasn't the toasts being made. The silver haired jounin was only wearing black sweatpants that hung on his hips and the black cloth mask, showing off his broad shoulders and lean muscle-toned body to great effect. His hair was still left untamed by the usual forehead-protector, tousled from sleep and making him look a little wild. He looked good enough to eat 'I have my answer' she concluded. A wicked glint entered her eye and she ghosted closer, until she stood right behind him. Then she slowly slid her hands from the small of his back, along his sides and up to meet under his chest, while she leaned up and purred "Good morning Kashi", making sure her hot breath tickled the sensitive skin on his ears.

Kakashi had smelt her enter the kitchen, but didn't quite know how to react, since he still couldn't remember if anything had happened between them. Even though he was somewhat prepared, the way she purred his shortened name and the feel of her touching him still sent chills of pleasure running over his skin, shattering his focus. As he was collecting himself she continued "I'm surprised you're up, weren't we going for round three this morning?" and nibbled playfully at his earlobe. Kakashi's brain momentarily blacked out, all coherent thoughts crashing to a halt 'Round three?' He had no idea if he should commend himself being capable of going the first two rounds and pleasing her well enough to want number three, or curse himself for not remembering at all.

'Score two!' Aya thought, and went for the kill when he had been silent for a short while, obviously still stunned: "You're so silent Kashi, don't you want me anymore?" she whispered in the saddest voice she could muster, letting her arms fall and turning around.

That woke him up. "Of course I do!" he said, scrambling to get his act together. He hurriedly put down his mug and stepped closer to wrap his arms around her. He could feel her shaking slightly and for a moment he feared she was crying, panicking just a bit. Then she turned around in his arms, eyes twinkling with equal parts merriment and mischief, and said "Good enough for me" Her hands rose to his face and pulled down the mask. He only just got to wonderingly realize 'That little minx completely played me' before her lips touched on his. Then his body took over, deepening the kiss as he steered her backwards to trap her against the counter. Her arms came to rest around his neck, one hand playing with his hair. His hands in turn roved over her sides and back, one coming up to tangle in her long hair, pulling gently to tip her head back as his tongue ran over her lips, begging for entrance. It was granted and both hands travelled down, coming to rest on her hips and hoisting her up on the counter. Her bare legs wrapped around his hips as he stepped forward, one hand caressing her thigh, then moving back up to her hair while the other settled on the small of her back, pressing them as close as they could go. He leaned in just a bit, angling his face to have better access as he took his time slowly ravishing her mouth throughoutly, tongues dancing languidly around each other. He was breathing a little harder when he broke away, but his mouth didn't stray far, continuing its exploration down her neck. As he reached her collarbone he went up again, dragging his nose along the wet trail his mouth had left, until he reached her earlobe and napped it, running his tongue over afterward. The he huskily whispered into her ear "Nothing really happened last night, did there?"

Aya was breathing just as hard as Kakashi by this time, her skin extra sensitive and tingling pleasurably, especially the neck where his mouth had been. When he bit and licked her earlobe it caused sweet shocks to run through her body, heating up her already hot core. His deep husky voice and the breath fanning over her skin didn't do much to help her collect her scattered thoughts, but eventually she looked into his eyes and breathily answered "How could you ever think I would take advantage of having a handsome man at my mercy like that?". He placed his forehead against hers, saying "I'm not quite sure what to think. You did set me up good last night, and then this morning I woke with this gorgeous woman in my bed, wearing my shirt and talking about a third round". Aya smiled sweetly, asking "Is that a complaint I hear, Kashi-kun?". "Oh no, I'm merely curious. You did mess with my head like a pro just a little while ago" he answered. Her smile turned positively devious, as she ran her hands down his chest and said "Well you did plant the idea and challenge my pranker-self with that precaution of yours. Really, did you think a little alcohol would deter a former, and I quote, master-pranker?"

Kakashi ran over what he could remember in his head, concluding that maybe, just maybe, he had said a little too much back then, considering he knew not to challenge her usually well-hidden pranker-side. But to his defense, he had been both inebriated and distracted by her closeness at the time. He smiled ruefully.

'I should really be trying to extricate myself from this before she gets too close' he half-heartedly tried convincing himself. But the truth was, she had been too close for a while now, even if he had been deluding himself into thinking he was keeping up a – admittedly small – distance. He had apparently also been deluding himself when he assured himself that she was only interested in his friendship anyway, so this attraction of his would pass. 'I'll just have to take it easy and see where this leads' he concluded.

"Master-pranker indeed" he mumbled, before leaning in for a quick kiss "So is toast a fine enough meal for the master?" In response she laughed, sliding down the counter to stand before him and said "Splendid. Do you have any tea?"

As she prepared tea for herself, Kakashi sat down and observed her, nursing the mug of his precious coffee she had been so nice to reheat using her fire-affinity. To his eyes, she looked even more irresistible now than she had yesterday. Tousled hair, a smile on her slightly swollen lips and wearing his dress shirt, which wasn't buttoned all the way up and left her long shapely legs bare. He silently wondered how the hell he was going to take it easy when she was just so tempting.

A short while later it turned out he shouldn't have bothered trying to resist. His good intentions simply didn't stand a chance against the combined forces of the man in him and the playful woman. He sincerely did try; after finishing his breakfast he had sat down by his desk, attempting to distract himself with a half-finished report to give Aya time to dress, without him interfering. The problem arose when said woman decided she didn't much feel like dressing or being ignored, and then proceeded to completely crush his resolve by placing herself on his lap, facing him, with her knees on either side of his hips. To top it off she was smiling innocently at him, asking "Ne Kakashi, do you mind if I do a little exploring?" as she looked him over in a way that made it clear it wasn't the neighborhood she was curious about. 'Take it easy and see where it leads, huh? I can do that…' said man thought, feeling his body responding to her nearness and position.

Aya couldn't help the tiny victory-smirk as she saw Kakashi's gaze turn dark with desire and felt the growing bulge pressing against her hot center. He was too damn sexy when he looked intensely at her like that, half his delicious body exposed and hair tousled. It made her pulse pump even faster, heating her up further and made her lick her lips in anticipation.

The alpha male in the silver-haired jounin had other plans though, wanting to take charge and show his lady just what he was made off. So he stood from the chair, lifting her with him, and placed her beneath him on the bed with her arms held above her head. Then he kissed a trail down her neck and replied in a deep husky voice "Now normally really I wouldn't mind that, but today I have an entire night of drunkenness to make up for, so please bear with me…" While she was distracted, he utilized his shinobi skills and had her hands tied securely together and fastened to the bed "…I promise I'll make you enjoy it very much"

Needless to say they didn't leave his apartment that day.

Aya and Kakashi didn't really keep this new closeness between them secret, but they didn't advertise it either. They had no need for categorizing their relationship, content in letting it run its course and see where it went. This didn't keep their friends from guessing of course, but it didn't spread further. Which was as it should be, since the feared Copy-nin having a supposedly civilian lover would have been too good an opportunity for enemy-nin to resist.

Kakashi's ninken of course smelled them on each other the next time they were summoned, but thankfully only Pakkun actually verbalized their happiness in that their alpha had finally come to his senses. Apparently they had been getting very exasperated with him, since they could smell he wanted her, so why the hell didn't he claim her? Aya found it tremendously funny, while Kakashi sighed resignedly; he loved his ninken, he really did, but they just didn't get the finer points of human nature and society. All the ninken really liked the woman they saw as their alpha's mate; she had the skills of a deadly fast fighter and hunter, was a passable tracker, could keep up with their rough playing, usually had treats for them and gave really good backrubs. But for reasons that continued to baffle Kakashi, it was big Buru and Aya who really connected and adored each other. Somehow he would have thought she got along better with one of the smaller faster ninken.

Aya's falcons in turn found Kakashi acceptable. Sora especially got along splendidly with his ninken, while Tsubasa acted a lot like an older protective brother; he respected the elite jounin immensely and they got along fine, but if he ever suspected he wasn't treating her properly… Kakashi found the huge dark bird of prey a bit intimidating with his size, wicked-looking claws and sharp blades, but at the same time found it comforting that he was so protective of his summoner. It was a point they had in common after all.


	16. Chapter 16

Enter Jiraiya :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

**Kaze no Uchiha**

Jiraiya, one of the three legendary Sannin of Konohagakure and Gama Sennin, was to put it bluntly dumbfounded. He had had a hunch, which was why he sat down to meditate and feel the nature energy in the first place, but he had been completely unprepared for it to be true. How in the worlds had he not noticed another sennin being in Konoha?

It had all started out when he came to Konoha on his former sensei, the Sandaime Hokage's request. Here he had first been informed that ROOT was still alive and kicking so to speak, despite having been disbanded. It was also still under Danzo's command instead of answering to the Hokage. Then he had been brought in on the S-class long term mission of unraveling it and met the team working on the mission. Turned out they needed him to look at a cursed seal preventing the operatives from revealing anything incriminating about Danzo, to determine if it could be removed safely and whether it served other purposes. As he was briefed something kept tickling his senses about the black-masked nin, so when he was alone with the Old man he asked what her part in the mission was. He found out that she was capable of sensing and recognizing people through their chakra-signature, regardless of them suppressing or cloaking it. She had dubbed it signature-presence, as it wasn't quite the normal chakra-sensing. Since it made it possible for her to identify ROOT-members even after only seeing them in their uniform, she was tasked with supplying information for the rest of the team to work with. She would also be infiltrating the ROOT-chambers after he had determined the cursed seal's function, as her ability to perceive things all around her and unnoticeable chakra-signature made her uniquely suited for stealthy infiltration.

"What do you mean unnoticeable? The woman lights up like a beacon to my senses; she has way beyond average chakra-capacity" Jiraiya stated incredulously. At this the Sandaime looked at him intently "You can sense her?" he asked. "Quite clearly, why?" the white-haired Sannin answered, looking at him weirdly. "Because no one else can, even when she isn't trying to hide her chakra. Kakashi can only see it once it leaves her body, like for instance when she channels wind-chakra through weapons, and no Hyuga has ever noticed her being a trained nin". Well that was weird he had to admit "Hmm, my chakra-sensing isn't that much better than Kakashi's, so it has to be something diff…" Here his words trailed off, while his eyes widened at the stray thought that had just entered his head 'No that can't be it' he mentally dismissed. It had to be some kind of kekkei genkai, but how would that work? What could he sense that others couldn't, apart from nature energy? "I need to check something" he finished, going toward the window.

Hiruzen had patiently kept silent as thoughts raced through his former student's head, but now said "Jiraiya, I won't stop you because I trust you. But if you are going looking for Kurohyou-chan, you need to know that her identity is a secret only known to a few select people. It would be best if it remained that way, as she is technically a civilian and as such not a part of the village's shinobi-forces" Jiraiya raised his brow, but nodded. "Good. I think she said something about training with Kakashi today" Hiruzen finished and then turned back to the bane of his existence, even as Jiraiya exited through the window.

Jiraiya found them at one of the out-of-the-way fields that were rarely used and thus provided a bit of privacy. The field was… trashed wasn't quite the word, mutilated fit better he decided. A beauty with flame-colored hair and light blue eyes appeared to be holding her own against one of Konoha's elite jounin, fending off his assaults with two wickedly sharp tessen.

'Oh, quite the beauty indeed' he thought appreciatively, watching as she agilely moved around the attacks, looking much like a gifted dancer. She was wearing dark blue geta and leggings, with what looked a white juban, just long enough to cover her behind, tied with a deep red obi. He could see a flower-patterned yukata in blue colors hanging off to the side, presumably to keep it from being cut up. Her hair was secured by two blue chopsticks and around her neck hung a chain with a pendant in a red color matching her hair. He rather liked the overall effect, as it showed off her legs, slender neck and revealed just enough of her lovely cleavage.

Before Jiraiya's thoughts could completely derail and turn down a much more perverted trail, he was woken up by said beauty tearing up a good part of the field with a wave of her tessen. He also realized that she most definitely knew where he was, as she looked straight at his position and quirked her brow inquiringly, before returning to the spar.

'Civilian my ass' he thought, now completely focused. So it was true she could sense people regardless of how good they hid their chakra. The old man had said something about her perceiving things she couldn't see too, so to test it he used common hand-signs to signal she should just proceed and ignore his presence. He wasn't disappointed; as soon as she had the space she jumped back and used fan-language to sign back an affirmative. By this time Kakashi had noticed something was up and apparently asked, since she shrugged while saying something and signaling to his position. The jounin looked up, but also shrugged, then went back to attacking.

In the meantime the Gama Sennin had decided to follow up on his earlier hunch, just for good measure. He sat down and meditated to feel the nature energy all around him, narrowing in on a certain red-haired woman. As he focused on her he noticed the way nature energy from the air around her flowed seamlessly into her and blending with her own chakra. But that should be impossible, since one had to be completely still to absorb the nature energy. The more he focused, the more he realized she seemed to be almost part of the air around her, energy flowing both into and out of her. He had no idea one could do that, but regardless, there was no question about it – she was a sennin.

Which brought him to his current predicament; how in the worlds had he not noticed and who had trained her? It couldn't be the toads, as they didn't know of this technique she used. 'Only one way to find out' he resolutely decided, then jumped toward the sparring pair.

At the training field Aya felt the Sannin's approach, wondering what he wanted. She had felt him earlier as he arrived, but had resolved to have faith in Saru-jii-san when he said she could trust Jiraiya with her identity. So she made him aware that she knew he was there, while opting to continue the spar. She couldn't help chuckling a bit as he signed to her, presumably to test Saru-jii-san's claims, and signed back – she figured he must know fan-language if he appreciated women as much as the rumors said. By then Kakashi had noticed her preoccupation, so she just said "Your favorite author" and pointed to his position. Kakashi had lifted his brow like asking "Are you okay with him knowing?", but accepted the fact that she had let him get so close as answer enough.

By now Jiraiya had landed in front of her, breaking off the spar. The tall man was looking intently at the woman in front of him, studying her face for signs of the sennin-mode. No animal-traits whatsoever, but… 'I don't think she's wearing makeup, so could those markings by her eye be related to her sennin-mode?' The fine darkly pigmented line, running along her upper lashes since her infancy, had over the years gradually thickened and spread. It now looked a lot like deliberately applied eyeliner, complete with a tiny triangle sweeping upwards at the outer eye-corner, giving her a almost feline look. At first glance it just looked dark, but at nearer inspection one could see the lines were in fact blue.

"How long have you been a sennin and who taught you?" he finally asked, but was disappointed when she just looked honestly confused, saying "I don't exactly know what a sennin is, so I presume it won't help if I tell you my teacher in the shinobi-arts was my Otousan, Uchiha Susumu" Actually that was interesting too, since there was only supposed to be two Uchiha left in this world, but still entirely irrelevant. Jiraiya waited a moment, then came to the conclusion that the word genuinely didn't ring any bells and sighed.

"Simply put a sennin is one capable of sensing and drawing natural energy into them, mixing it with their own chakra to form senjutsu-chakra. It is very difficult to master and the training carries great dangers. Senjutsu-chakra can't be sensed unless one is trained in senjutsu, which is why people can't sense or see your chakra. However, I am a sennin taught by the toads, so I can sense that you are doing it continuously and while in movement. That shouldn't actually be possible, so I ask again; who taught you?" he tried again.

Aya was stunned, if a bit skeptical at first. "I do that? For as long as I can remember I have had this connection with the air and wind around me. It is an integral part of my being and I couldn't imagine ever living without it. Is that what is?" she eagerly asked. Had she finally found a person like her?

This time it was Jiraiya who was stunned 'As long as she remembers? How is that possible? That would make her, what, natural born sennin?' Could a kekkei genkai like that exist? The more he thought about it, the more questions did he get.

"So you really don't know anything… And yes, I think that is what it is, though I have no clue as to how it is possible. I will have to ask the Ogama Sennin and my teachers" he said, then after a short break continued "I know you have a long term mission now and I guess it will have to wait, but you should really be taught how to use it. Like I said, it is dangerous if used incorrectly" Then he turned around, deep in his own thoughts, and walked away.

He was almost off the training field when he remembered himself and rapidly backtracked. He forgot to do his super awesome introduction dance and impress the lovely lady! However, when he got back he spotted how his number one fan had moved over to wrap his arms around the beauty from behind, nuzzling her neck. The jounin actually had the cheek to just eye-smile at him and say "Her name is Aya, Uchiha Aya", while his arms tightened possessively. Then he looked at the Gama Sennin, sharingan spinning, and Jiraiya recognized the implied threat and mute warning: My lady, touch her at your own peril… 'That little brat' Jiraiya thought, but still gave him his best proud pervert smile and thumbs up, before he sped off, thinking 'Nice score Kakashi, I taught you well!'.

Back at the field Aya couldn't help but smile as she saw the silent exchange between the two men. When the Gama Sennin was gone, she turned in Kakashi arms and wrapped hers around him too "Am I being protected?" she teasingly asked. He leaned in as he pulled his mask down to catch her mouth in a kiss, then he said "You have no idea. He is my favorite author after all".

It was one week later that Aya received a surprise invitation. It came by the way of Sora, who had told the falcon-elders what the Gama Sennin had said and been given a message to take back. Aya was invited to Hayabusa Uchi as soon as her mission ended. The invitation stated that she would be welcome to stay and train to become stronger together with the falcons there, but even if she couldn't do that the Hayabusa Sennin, Setsuzentaru, would like to meet her. She had never before visited her summons' home, so she was really looking forward to it and it would be a great honor to meet the Sennin.

Regarding the training Aya was torn. Even if the Sennin didn't choose to train her in senjutsu, it was still a great opportunity to get much stronger and get to know many more of the falcons she was contracted too. She already enjoyed training with Tsubasa immensely and was excited to get to explore her two friends' home. But she knew that if chose to accept, she would throw herself completely into it and give her everything to master all they could teach, in honor of the promise she had made to Oikko-kun that night on the roof. That could take years. Years where she would have to put her artisan-self on the shelf, and years where she would only seldom see other humans, since Hayabusa Uchi wasn't exactly near any civilization. That meant she couldn't see Kakashi or any of her precious persons very often.

She would have to think about it and see when the time came. The mission was proceeding as fast as could be expected, but it was slow going 'At least Jiraiya-sama ascertained that the seal wasn't some kind of pass, so I can proceed with the infiltration…'

Author's note:

I don't think Jiraiya should actually be able to sense Aya without meditating or entering sennin-mode according to cannon, but that's the beauty of fanfiction I guess :)


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: Sadly I cannot take credit for Naruto.

**Kaze no Uchiha**

**- 2012 -**

The door to her workshop banged open and two boys came barreling in, the blond one whisper-shouting "Aya-Onee-chan! Hurry, please hide us before the banshees arrive!" Said redhead looked up from her work on a bracelet, smiling amusedly at the sight in front of her. Naruto might have been the one to ask, but it was clear that Sasuke was just as desperate, if not more so by the look in his eye. The banshees were of course the Uchiha's fan-club, but it hadn't been this bad in a while, she mused, as she flipped up a corner of a carpet and revealed the hatch leading to the cellar. The two practically threw themselves down to safety and just in time too; she only just got the carpet flipped back over when the girls descended. As they looked around for their quarry, Aya idly thought 'I wonder what happened, they looked kind of frazzled the poor boys'

Both Sasuke and Naruto had come a long way since she met them the first time more than a year and a half ago. Sasuke wasn't nearly as brooding and could actually be seen smiling on occasion, though mostly when Naruto played a prank or they were back at her house. Sadly they hadn't been able to break him of the habit of viewing hnn-ing as an acceptable response to almost anything, but by now they were more or less fluent in different hnn's. Aya was good, but Naruto had it right down to an art. She was used to their way of conversing by now, but it was still highly amusing to see the incredulous look on especially the fan-girls' faces as the two boys communicated; Sasuke mostly hnn-ing and Naruto responding as if he had spoken complete sentences.

The blond kid had also changed and settled down a bit. He still pranked people, but he had been inspired by Aya's impressing statistic of never having been caught after a prank, so now he was actually planning out his escapes as well as the pranks themselves. He was becoming pretty good at it too. People still thought he did it, so he got plenty of attention from it, but now they couldn't prove it or catch him most of the time. Even the ANBU-operatives were having a hard time of it and she knew some of them were secretly impressed, if a bit annoyed. Iruka admonished her for encouraging him, but she just retorted that it was very good preparation for his future career and who was she to stop him from training?

Naruto's looks had also changed quite a bit since he first met Aya. He had decided to grow his hair out, partially because he thought it looked cool and partially because he had seen how easy it was for his Aya-onee-san to just tie her hair back for training. Plus, he was tired of chopping off his hair every month or so. He could tie it all back in a stump by now, but he usually let it hang loose, giving him an almost unnerving resemblance to the man who had sealed the demon within him. His obnoxious orange jumpsuits were completely gone in favor of dark blue pants and ditto long-sleeved undershirt, with metal plates sewn in where it reached the back of his hand. But here the likeness to Obito's uniform ended; over it he wore a kimono held closed with a wide dark blue belt, since it was the closest he could come to an obi without the hassle of tying it. Aya had them made for him as a present after he had marveled at how cool it was to be able to hide all kinds of things in ones sleeves, and tried to keep some of the elements from his jumpsuit-jacket. The kimono was short enough to not hinder his movements, made from a durable fabric in a nice, not eye-watering, orange color and had lots of hidden pockets. On its back was the whirlpool-mark, only made to look more real in blue and white colors, with a white border around it; the front bore a smaller version of the same design. Running along the edges of the sleeves and the bottom of the kimono was a blue and white wave-pattern, in keeping with the whirlpool-theme. Of course he couldn't go without something around his forehead, so they had found him some blue goggles to stand in for his future forehead-protector.

Both Naruto and Sasuke's ninja-skills had also gotten much better since back then. Aya couldn't really teach them anything above academy-level unless it was related to weapons, since she wasn't exactly supposed to know it, but she corrected their taijutsu, made them do the leaf-sticking exercise and set them little challenges to learn from. Sadly she couldn't help Naruto with his bunshin as she had never been able to do it herself. Therefore Aya thought most of the credit for their improvements should go to their brotherly rivalry, since it kept them competing endlessly and learning from each other. For instance Sasuke's stealth and stamina had improved greatly, while Naruto's academic scores had gone up a notch and he was becoming very good at hitting his targets. Their constant sparring obviously did wonders for their over-all physical capabilities and recently they had gotten into their heads to master fighting with ninjato, so now they beat up each other with their down-sized bokken too. When Aya had found out, she had dug up some katas and techniques for them to practice, but while Sasuke showed promise Naruto did not, even if he was too stubborn to admit defeat. As a compromise she had introduced him to two tanto-sized bokken instead, which suited his unpredictable fighting-style infinitely better, and now both made great progress. Seeing this, she had decided to make some real blades to give them when they made genin.

'That's only a moment away, isn't it? The graduation-exams are already tomorrow. How the time has flown' she thought. Luckily Aya's graduation gifts only needed the last small details before they were done. By now the banshees were gone, so she flipped away the carpet again and knocked on the hatch to let the boys know, then returned to her work. "What are you making Aya-onee-san?" Naruto asked her curiously, as Sasuke looked around. She had noted the slightly awkward feel between them as they came up and was wondering what happened, but answered anyway "It's a bracelet designed to hold ninja-wire" then eyed them "So are you going to tell me what happened?" Both boys looked even more awkward, until Naruto couldn't take it anymore and just spilled. When he was done Aya was desperately trying to hold in her laughter. Apparently Naruto had heard two girls swooning over Sasuke's looks, which was the usual, but instead of ignoring it he had gotten curious and listened in. He couldn't really see most of the things they praised, but almost all the girls were saying it, so he wondered if he needed to look closer. Therefore he had jumped up on Sasuke's desk to get a closer look and was studying his face intently, which was when The Incident happened; the guy by the desk in front of Sasuke's had stretched and accidently pushed the blond, making Naruto and Sasuke's lips meet. Then all hell had broken loose, as the fan-girls morphed into their banshee-mode and one half went after Naruto to punish him for stealing their Sasuke-kun's first kiss, while the other threw themselves at Sasuke to make sure he wasn't traumatized. The two boys had then fled the Academy, but were being followed through Konoha by the banshees, which was how they ended up in her workshop in a last ditch effort to escape. 'No wonder they are feeling awkward with each other. Must not laugh, must not…' she thought, then tried to distract herself by calming them down "Well I'm glad I could help. Look, I know many find first kisses extremely important, but they really aren't, so don't let this change anything between you. If it makes you feel better, then look at it this way: it only counts as a kiss if you mean it, else it's just two persons touching each other fleetingly. You do that all the time during spars, right?" They nodded and she could see the tension seeping out of them.

When they were gone she said "You can stop hiding Kakashi" Said jounin cancelled the genjutsu he had thrown up when he realized she had company in the workshop. "Mah, isn't it a little cynical of you, not placing greater meaning in first kisses?" he teasingly asked. At this Aya looked up at him, quirking her brow and smiling humorously "My first kisses were with girls during my training; how is that for meaning?" she shot back. After a short pause, Kakashi shook his head to clear his head of the tantalizing mental images that bit of information had invoked, saying "Touché" Then he gestured to ask if there were any unwelcome listeners around. Receiving a negative response he continued in a serious tone "Hokage-sama has given the go ahead to proceed".

Aya just nodded. Earlier Jenki had informed her of a chance to enter the chambers while a large part of ROOT's operatives were present. It was what they had been waiting for. She had already infiltrated the chambers before, so she knew the layout, but what she needed was to sense as many signature-presences as possible. This was it. 'It's just my luck that it had to coincide with the boys' exams. I was so looking forward to greeting them afterwards' she thought, sighing. At least she would be officially home again the day after, so she wouldn't miss them being placed on their genin-teams or meeting their sensei. 'Hmm, speaking of sensei, I wonder if Kakashi will actually pass a team this time…'

The next morning Naruto and Sasuke found a note from Aya when they came to do their morning exercises. It said that she was very sorry that she couldn't be there today, but she had been suddenly called away and would be back tomorrow. It also wished them good luck and promised to make it up to them.

And so it was, that while Aya was deep within ROOT's chambers, Mizuki-sensei approached Naruto unhindered. Sasuke was keeping an eye on him even as he gave him space, but didn't see any problem in their sensei trying to cheer him up. It was really unlucky it had been the bunshin they were tested in, the blond was one of the few people he didn't mind having around too much.

The infiltration had been successful and everything went smoothly 'Almost too smoothly' Aya mused, as she moved rapidly over the roofs, still wearing Kenji's ANBU-uniform and mask. She had an uneasy feeling, as if her instincts were telling her something had happened, but she didn't think it was related to the mission.

Without really thinking about it she felt for her precious persons' whereabouts. 'Why are Naruto-kun and Iruka all the way out there' she wondered, slowing to a stop. As she did, a chunin landed beside her, looking frantic as he asked her "Have you seen the demon-brat?" She couldn't help herself, KI seeping out as she turned her masked face toward the nin, who felt a chill of trepidation run down his spine and scrambled to explain "Naruto stole the Scroll of Seals from the Hokage Residence, we have to find him before he leaves the village!" At this Aya's eyes widened in surprise, thoughts racing 'Naruto-kun wouldn't just go and do that, hell, he doesn't even know there is such a thing', then she sensed Mizuki's signature-presence chasing after Naruto and Iruka 'What in the seven hells is going on out there?' she wondered, taking off in their direction. Back on the roof the chunin breathed out in relief seeing the scary ANBU operative disappear, hoping the Black Ops would have better luck.

She kept her attention focused on the area the three were in while she raced at top-speed toward their position, getting very worried when she realized that Iruka was wounded. Aya got there just in time to perceive Naruto defend her best friend from Mizuki's giant shuriken, becoming increasingly mad when it dawned on her that the chunin had revealed why people thought of the blond as a demon. But the masked redhead held herself back from jumping in when she saw and heard how determined Naruto was to defend his sensei, knowing she had to let him at least try. 'I'll interfere the moment he is in real danger' she vowed to herself, but as it turned out it wasn't necessary. To her bafflement Naruto, who had only been able to produce one sick-looking bunshin until now, flooded the clearing with copies of himself; solid copies at that. 'Kage-bunshin' the redhead concluded in amazement. Kakashi had used them in their spars sometimes, so she knew it was a B-rank jutsu, but said jounin couldn't make even a fraction of the number of Narutos that were beating Mizuki senseless before her 'Naruto also called the jutsu Tajuu Kage-bunshin. Did he learn a forbidden form of the jutsu from the scroll he stole?' she thought.

It warmed her heart and brought a smile to her lips when she saw Iruka give the blond his own forehead-protector, officially declaring him a ninja. 'So I guess this means that he didn't pass the exams' she thought guiltily; she was beginning to see what might have happened and it didn't bode well for Iruka's fellow sensei. As Naruto threw himself at Iruka, Aya silently landed beside the downed nin and tied him up using ninja-wire. Then she turned to her wounded friend, signaling to ask if he would be okay. Upon getting an affirmative, she swung Mizuki over her shoulder and picked up the big Scroll of Seals, setting course for the Hokage Tower. The traitorous nin would be going to T&I, but she would drop off the scroll by Saru-jii-san first.

At the Hokage Tower the Sandaime cancelled his Telescope Technique, satisfied that the lone ANBU was in fact Aya-chan and that she was on her way here. Now he just needed to calm down the distraught nin he could hear outside.


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to that brilliant man who can actually draw :)

**Kaze no Uchiha**

During the break between receiving their forehead-protectors and getting their genin-teams assigned, Aya saw a lot of Naruto. Every evening he would tell her about his day, often making her laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. His kabuki-painted face on his ninja-registration picture was hilarious so it was almost sad it didn't go through, but at least she got to keep it and frame it. He had even told her about how he had tried to convince the Hokage and Iruka-sensei to approve it, by using his original jutsu. She knew she should probably have been scandalized that he had created and used the Sexy no jutsu, but it was just so funny how most of the villages' serious male shinobi reacted like to it. Even Saru-jii-san and Iruka-kun! And when she learned that he had defeated that stuck up Ebisu by combining it with the Kage bunshin, creating the Harem no jutsu, she really wished she had seen it. Sure, it probably wasn't wise that he taught the original jutsu to Saru-jii-san's grandson, Konohamaru, but at least it sounded like the kid had taken Naruto's hardworking attitude to heart.

Of course it wasn't all laughter. On the second day after receiving his forehead-protector and learning about the Kyubi being inside him, he had finally mustered up the nerve to ask Iruka whether Aya-nee-san had known too. He had been relieved to find that she had, but it still took a lot of courage to ask her about it. He wanted to know why she hadn't hated him like most shinobi or feared her like the civilians, if she had known when she befriended him and so on. He couldn't bear to think that she might have wanted to use him like Mizuki-sensei did.

Aya listened to his nervous rambling patiently. When she heard exactly how Mizuki had manipulated Naruto and hurt Iruka that night, she had a very hard time of staying in her seat, but somehow convinced herself that what Ibiki could do to the traitor was much worse than anything she could come up with. As the blond finished and looked at her in part anticipation, part dread, her heart almost broke for him. She threw her arm around his shoulder, looked him in the eyes and proceeded to honestly answer the questions as best she could: No she had not known immediately, but found out when he presented himself that day at the Academy. How could she hate him when he reminded her so much of people she had known and liked? And apart from that, she found it ridiculous that people couldn't distinguish a kid from a humongous demon fox. After all, a sealing scroll didn't turn into the kunai sealed inside it – that was actually the whole point of sealing them inside it. Which kind of made most of the reasons people feared him void in her eyes. As for using him, she hadn't even considered the possibility. She had originally befriended him because he had reminded her of two of her most precious persons: Obito and Iruka. From there it wasn't long until she simply liked him for who he was and just did what she felt was right.

As she talked, Naruto relaxed more and more. He loved it when she brought out pictures of the people she said he reminded her of, telling him little stories. There was her first best friend and cousin, Obito, who had dreamed of becoming Hokage like him and always had time to help Konoha's elderly. He found it bittersweet when she showed him the team-picture with the Yondaime in it, but had to admit that they actually looked a lot alike. He laughed when heard about some of Iruka-sensei's pranks and saw the funny pictures they had taken together. She even dug out one of a pretty lady called Kushina, whom she swore loved ramen as much as he did. All in all he felt much better when he crashed on her couch that night, contemplating how nice it felt to have one more person accept him despite everything. He thought about telling Sasuke, but shied away from the idea. He didn't want anything to change between them and, though the Uchiha had noticed the way people treated him and frankly was too smart to buy that it was because of the pranks, Naruto feared the truth might be too much for his friend.

What Naruto hadn't noticed, was the minute widening of his Aya-nee-san's eyes as she read the caption on the back of the only picture she had with Kushina in it. When the blond was fast asleep she took it out again to examine it. 'You have got to be kidding me..' she thought as she read it over again, double-checking. The picture was taken in a ramen stand one day after she had been watching Obito's team train and on it was of course team 7: Obito, Rin, an annoyed Kakashi and Minato-sensei. But apart from them there was also two redheads, namely herself and Minato-sensei's girlfriend, Kushina. Whose full name was apparently Uzumaki Kushina, a fact she would never have known if it wasn't for her Kaasan's penchant for writing names and dates on all the pictures she took.

'Uzumaki, exactly like the blond orphaned kid lying on my couch, who has no idea who his parents were' she thought. It wasn't a name she had ever heard others than those two bear and it was almost too much of a coincidence that both of them had the strange dual signature-presences and strong chakra. 'But Kushina was together with Minato..' here her eyes widened at the direction her thoughts were racing. It was preposterous and she didn't have anything substantial to back up her suspicions with, but still it made a twisted kind of sense. Naruto's uncanny resemblance to Minato and the things he had in common with Kushina. Aya hadn't known the redhead all that well, but she knew she had had a fiery temper, been impulsive, loved ramen, cared very deeply for her precious persons, pulled many pranks and even had the habit of ending her sentences with dattebane when exited, which was a lot like Naruto's dattebayo. There was also the fact that it would have been so unlike the Yondaime to ask a parent to risk their child if he had had a son himself; he was simply too good a Hokage for it. If Minato really was Naruto's father she could even somewhat understand why he had gotten his mother's name, since the Yondaime was both hated and feared by Konoha's enemies. 'But how can the people living in the village be so completely blind?' she thought, marveling at the stupidity and duplicity of some people 'They worship the father for his brilliance and in the same breath curse the son he would have wanted them to love'. The unfairness of it all made her temper flare and she decided she needed to talk to Saru-jii-san about this first thing this morning, before she went and did something about it herself.

When Hiruzen woke that morning he had a bad feeling. A feeling that only intensified when the falcon landed with a message from Aya-chan, stating that she needed to see him pronto and that he probably wouldn't want anyone but his most trusted within hearing range. It was clear she hadn't been in the best of moods when she wrote the message 'I wonder what got her this riled up?' he thought apprehensively, but nonetheless arranged for her to meet him at the office an hour later.

The moment his surrogate-niece stepped in he knew he had been right to be apprehensive. It was obvious to him that she was angry and some of that anger was directed at him, which had never happened before. The reason became clear when she walked to his desk and placed a photo front down on it, then looked at him with a hard glint in her eye and in a chillingly polite voice asked "Would Hokage-same please explain this to me?" In front of him the name 'Uzumaki Kushina' was printed in the neat handwriting of Uchiha Yui. For a brief moment he considered using a cover story to explain how a certain blond didn't have anything to do with this woman despite appearances, but quickly dismissed the notion, knowing Aya wouldn't be thrown of the trail that easily. Instead he flipped over the photography and smiled wistfully as he saw the happy faces of Kushina and Minato. Then he sighed, cursing the need for secrecy "Why don't you tell me what you have concluded so far, Aya-chan?" he finally said.

What followed was an almost Nara-worthy run-through of why it was ridiculously obvious who Naruto's parents were, finishing with "I can understand why you didn't give him the Namikaze-name to keep his father's enemies off his trail. But please tell me you were at least going to tell him about his mother, whose name he bears? In the eyes of the village he is supposed to be an adult from the moment he receives that forehead-protector, expected to take responsibility and even kill for his home. And still something that should be glaringly obvious to anyone who knew Kushina back in the day is kept from him. Is that how Konoha honors the memory of two great shinobi who gave everything for it? By denying their child the right to know about his roots?" By this time Aya had worked herself up to rightful rage in her frustration, so she took a deep breath to calm herself, then said "I have to admit, that I am deeply disappointed to know that for the past 12 years my village has done nothing to deserve the unwavering loyalty Naruto shows".

Hiruzen sat in silence, letting her get it all out. After all, had he not had the very same doubts? When she finished, he sighed again, feeling much older than his age suggested. "I understand completely and trust me when I say that it weighs heavily on my conscience every single time I look up at Minato's face. Still, you have to understand that letting him know too early would have endangered him. I had to wait until he was ready to handle the truth without spreading it further. The whole truth mind you, since I can't bear to lie anymore to that child than I already have done in the name of his safety. To reveal Kushina alone I would have had to hold back or edit the majority of her history and the stories I could tell him, lest Naruto learn about his father or the Kyu…" Here he stopped himself, mentally cursing the slip of his tongue and hoping against hope that the redhead had missed it; he had apparently grown too complacent around her.

He had no such luck of course, but Aya's response wasn't quite what he expected "So she really was the former host, I had wondered about that…" Seeing his questioning look she elaborated "Ridiculous chakra-capacity aside, I noticed that Naruto had something very unique in common with Kushina already the first time I met him. His signature-presence seemed to be almost dual and it had this strange animalistic-yet-not feel to it. I have only experienced that once elsewhere, namely when Honoohime visited Kumo and happened to meet the Raikage's brother. It makes sense given that jinchūriki do essentially hold another being – I just didn't want to jump to conclusions since I wasn't sure Konoha even had the Kyubi before the attack". Now it was her turn to look questioningly at him, while he thought with equal parts resignation and dark humor 'I should have figured she would be able to sense something like that.. Well, what is a couple of mostly outdated S-class secret compared to what she already knows?' before he to her surprise actually answered the unasked question "Naruto is the third jinchūriki of the Kyubi. Uzumaki Mito was the first, being the one to seal it inside herself during the battle between her husband, the Shodaime, and Uchiha Madara at the Valley of the End. Like Mito-sama before her, Kushina's seal was weakened when she went into labor, but though we knew this and took precautions, someone managed to take advantage of this and unleash the Kyubi on Konoha. Minato and Kushina gave their lives to protect the village that night, sealing the demon into their newborn son. On a side note, we never found out who the masked culprit was, but tragically some remembered that Uchiha Madara was supposed to have been able to control the demon and a creeping suspicion fell on his clan, despite the heavy causalities they had suffered same as every other clan. You know better than most what that mistrust ultimately resulted in".

The two sat in silence as Aya digested the new information, most of her outrage having been curbed when she understood how much it genuinely pained Saru-jii-san to stay silent. She didn't necessarily agree that he had done the right thing, but she could somewhat see his reasoning and was aware that it was easy to look back and point fingers, compared to being in the situation and having to make the tough decisions. Still, she was nothing if not stubborn, so she prompted him by asking "What about Naruto?"

Hiruzen couldn't help a small smile at her championing of said boy's rights, finding comfort in that Susumu's daughter had chosen to take the blonde under her wings. Adopted or not, she was so very much like her father in her unwavering loyalty and complete disregard of others' opinions and the unwritten laws of society. Turning his thoughts to the matter at hand he pondered the question. He was fairly certain his surrogate-niece would stay silent if he asked or ordered her to, but also ruefully admitted to himself that it would be a moot point if he didn't give a damn good explanation of the reasoning behind it; there were many ways she could push Naruto in the right direction without actually revealing anything and he didn't doubt that she was up for finding them. Besides, he didn't disagree with her in that Naruto deserved to know about his heritage; it was really the timing of it he was unsure of.

'A compromise then' he concluded, considering the options. "I have to ask you to refrain from telling him.." he started, continuing when he saw Aya's ice blue eye narrow "No hear me out. You will not tell him, not yet at least – hopefully never. Ideally either his Godfather or myself should be the ones to do it, but I realize that the world rarely lives up to the ideal scenario and you only want the best for Naruto. So as a contingency plan I will entrust to you a folder for you to hold until you deem him truly ready or circumstances make it necessary for him to know the whole truth, just in case. In it will be of course my written explanations and such, but also pictures and keepsakes I have stored away and his parents' files – the for-Hokage's-eyes-only version mind you. Due to the confidential nature of the contents, the folder will be held in a seal keyed to Naruto's blood; not because I do not trust you not to look or keep it safe, but as an extra precaution until the time is ripe. Can I count on you in this?"

Feeling slightly humbled by the faith being placed in her judgment, Aya nodded and seriously promised "Of course, Saru-jii-san". Some might say that addressing him as Hokage-sama would have been more fitting, but to her a promise between family-members was worth more; she was loyal to her precious people first, which by extension meant Konoha and the Hokage, not the other way around. She also knew that he was aware of this and understood her meaning. Smiling in response, he said "Thank you Aya-chan. I will have it ready within the week then". She was about to leave then, knowing he had much to do even without the added job of creating balanced genin-teams, but remembered something that made her turn around and ask in a deceptively sweet voice "Naruto has a Godfather?" Having been a married man, Hiruzen was well aware of how dangerous women could be when they used THAT tone, so he decided that selling out his spy-master was likely not in the best interest of the village and therefore answered "He does indeed. But I will not be an accomplice to neither murder nor any kind of mauling of my shinobi, so do not ask me who he is". Mentally he added 'Besides, you will certainly figure it out without my help as soon as your temper cools down a little'. Luckily Jiraiya wasn't in the village at the moment, or else he would have felt very sorry for his former student.

Hiruzen was right of course. It didn't take her long to conclude that the most likely suspects were the people closest to Kushina and Minato, namely teammates and senseis. Digging up information on Kushina's team might prove a challenge, but she had a hunch she wouldn't need to. No, her money were on Kakashi or Jiraiya. Sadly she couldn't find the Sannin, so she settled for seeking out copy-nin first.

Kakashi was visiting the memorial stone when he felt his lips involuntarily pull up into a fond smile. Soon after he realized the cause and felt a bit like some silly love-sick pup; it was Aya's unique scent being carried to him on the gentle breeze, meaning she couldn't be far. He said his goodbyes and turned away from his team-members' carved names, half expecting to see the lady in question waiting for him. He wasn't disappointed, though he wondered at her serious expression as he moved in closer and snaked his arms around her waist, asking "Did something happen?". Whatever he had expected to hear, it wasn't the question she countered his own with: "Are you Naruto's godfather?"

Later that night Aya would laugh at his dumbfounded reaction, teasing him about the not so intelligent "Huh?" that was his initial response. She was secretly relieved he wasn't the negligent guardian she was searching for, though upon learning that she was now in on the secret of the kid's parents, he had confessed to feeling guilty for not having been around more. In her eyes he had actually done an okay job all things considered; Kakashi's emotional scarring aside, it would have been a dead give-away if the Yondaime's last remaining student suddenly took in a baby so greatly resembling his sensei, but as Inu he had managed to keep the kid mostly safe despite the appallingly numerous assassination attempts. It only brought him further into her good graces when he confirmed that Jiraiya had indeed been named Naruto's godfather already before his birth. The avid Icha Icha-fan sent his favorite author a mental apology for ratting him out, even as he swooped in to catch those delicious lips in a searing hot kiss. Unclear relationship status or no, he had his priorities in order in this case and literature just didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell when up against the woman currently in his arms.


	19. Chapter 19

Disclaimer: I still only own my OC's :) That would be Aya, her parents, Sora, Tsubasa, Kenji and Jenki for these in doubt (Well, technically there are more, but they are only mentioned)

**Kaze no Uchiha**

"So, are you guys ready to become genin for real?" Aya asked the two boys currently scrambling to get their sandals on and reach the Academy in time for the team-assignments. She had invited them in for brunch after their usual morning exercises and somehow the time had gotten away from them while eating and talking. Because of her being home-trained, the adopted Uchiha didn't have any personal experience with the transition from student to genin, but she could dimly recall some of the things Obito and Iruka had told her about it long ago and had been asking some questions about it from her shinobi acquaintances. Not that she had gotten very many details out of said people, since most considered her to be civilian and the rest knew she was liable to tell Naruto and Sasuke; Iruka was too honorable to give two of his students an advantage over their peers, Genma thought teasing her was fun, Saru-jii-san had to be impartial and Kakashi was proving surprisingly stubborn. Of course they were all right in a way, but she considered it more of a leveling of the playing field than anything, since the majority of the clan-brats were bound to have grilled their parents for information beforehand. Besides, wasn't cheating practically part of the job description of shinobi? Following that reasoning, she had completely unashamedly presented her boys with the snippets and general things she did know. Predictably it was the part where they had to pass their jounin-sensei's test or return to the Academy that had started their discussion, which was why the boys were now in a hurry.

Speeding towards the private gate leading out of the compound, Naruto smiled brilliantly as he shouted "You better believe it! I'll show the world the awesomeness that it Uzumaki Naruto and we'll own that test! Thank you Aya-Onee-san". Behind him Sasuke smirked his trademark cool self-confident Uchiha-smirk and hnn'ed, but said Onee-san knew him well enough to spot the well-concealed excitement in his eyes and translate the monosyllable response into what was essentially the same thing the blonde just enthusiastically verbalized.

Shaking her head and smiling at the unlikely duo, Aya got ready to head into her workshop and put the finishing touches on her graduation presents. She was fully aware that usually only a third of the genin-hopefuls passed their test, but she couldn't do much else than have faith and hope the boys had taken her advice earlier to heart: "Utilize those brains of yours and consider whatever situations you get thrown into logically – too many nin die or fail their missions because of bad or misleading information, so observe and think carefully before you jump to conclusions". What she didn't tell them was that she knew this from her Otousan and the many times they had assisted konoha-nin in trouble, or that the same basic concept applied to navigating the dangerous political waters that was a daimyo's courts.

'Those two will be okay' she decided, forcefully dismissing the small voice whispering that even if they had listened, their teammates might still screw up enough to get them all failed. Involuntarily her thoughts turned to the banshees she knew for a fact hadn't been completely rooted out by the graduation test, making her shudder at the possibility of Sasuke ending up on a team with two of those. No one could be that cruel, right? Knowing that they actually could, if their respective skill-sets just complemented each other well enough, she quickly distracted herself from that line of thought by mentally going over the last details of the weapons she had designed and intended to give the boys; two tanto for Naruto and a ninjato for Sasuke. All were sized so that they would be able to follow their wielders even as they grew into adulthood.

The ninjato's blade was straight as tradition dictated and made in a dark chakra-conducting metal, matted so as to not catch the light anywhere else than along the wickedly sharp edge. And it really was wicked, since Sasuke being a technically good fighter meant she could afford to make it razor-thin, without fearing he would foolishly block a blow with the keen edge. The hand-guard was square with rounded edges and had a sharingan-red color, same as the handle beneath the black wrappings ensuring the wielder's grip. In keeping with the color scheme, the saya or scabbard was black with a red saya-cord, though the white of the Uchiha-fan pendant dangling from the cord broke with it. Being a great fan of well-hidden storage seals, she had of course placed one onto the scabbard before applying the black finish and thereby created a relatively safe space for storing important items. Well, actually she had placed two seals, but the other one was taken up by the tools needed to maintain the blade. All in all it made for a darkly beautiful weapon, elegant in its simplicity; much like its wielder it had no use for elaborate decorations that only served to distract from the fact that it was meant to be deadly.

In contrast the tanto blades were made in a much lighter chakra-conducting metal, with a bluish tint to it that the shiny polished finish really brought out. To make sure they survived their wielder's sometimes unorthodox and improvising fighting-style, she had forged them as yoroi tōshi tanto; straight and single-edged, but with thick spines that enabled them to pierce through armor and withstand blocking heavier blows. They were still very sharp, but not to point where the edges became almost brittle, and short enough that they could be fastened on the forearms where the kimono-sleeves would conceal them. One tanto had a blue handle and orange wrapping, with a blue scabbard to go with it, while the other had the same colors, only inverted. She had done a bit of research and found that the Uzumaki-clan used to be the leading clan of Uzushiogakure, so both scabbards had stylized whirlpools made from the same bluish metal as the blades inlaid – a choice of decoration that the recipient would understand the meaning behind later. The two weapons were so very Naruto in that they were deceptively simple, yet surprisingly effective in the right hands and unusually eye-catching for being intended for a shinobi. In fact the most discrete thing about them were her favored hidden storage seals, which they each held two of. But that was as it should be; their wielder was already capable of outmaneuvering most chunin in stealth while wearing eye-watering orange when she first met him, but he wasn't the type to sneak up on his enemies and slit their throats from behind, so flashy suited him splendidly.

The only details she had left to do at this point was the engravings on the blades:

A small Uchiha-clan symbol beside the kanji for Sasuke on the ninjato; the kanji meaning help or assistance, signifying both its wielder and her honest hope that her gift would come in handy and keep him safe – she tried not to think about the fact that it might be used to 'assist' Tachi-kun in dying some day.

She wanted the Uzumaki-spiral and the Konoha-leaf on opposite sides, back to back so to speak, on both tantos. On the predominantly blue-themed one the kanji for loyalty - Chuugi - would join the leaf-symbol, while the kanji for fighting spirit - Toukon - would go on the orange-themed beside the spiral.

Aya almost couldn't wait to have the blades done, even though she realized she would then have to find something new to occupy herself with until Naruto dropped by and told her the news. Needless to say it was a very productive day in the workshop.

Later that night found her lying in her big bed, mulling over her interesting evening. Down in the living room not only Naruto but also surprisingly Sasuke were sleeping on her extra futons, both having opted to eat dinner with her and somehow ended up agreeing to stay the night so they could set out together next morning. Well, in truth it was more like they had needed to blow off some steam by ranting about the events of the day and dinner had been a convenient excuse, but it wasn't like she minded; she had been curious after all. Besides, she had half expected it of the blonde and figured it was progress that the self-proclaimed avenger chose to join them of his own accord. Of course the proud Uchiha would ever lower himself enough to do something as undignified as ranting, so it was another proof of how much Sasuke had loosened up around them, when he actually contributed with his own comments while Naruto took care of it for both of them. Aya had to admit that she could somewhat understand their frustration, at being saddled with a ridiculously tardy jounin for a sensei and Pink Bansh…ehm, the very dedicated fan-girl Haruno Sakura for a teammate. 'Note to self: start using the name instead of the moniker. Might as well get used to it' Aya thought, wincing as she imagined the awkwardness that potential slip of her tongue might cause, not to mention the damage it could inflict on an insecure young mind. Still, she did not think they were that bad off, as she had told them when they cooled down. For one they had at least one teammate they knew they could count on – each other – secondly, Sakura had academic smarts and was probably nice enough when she wasn't in banshee-mode, though she sounded very immature. To herself the redhead a tad cynically added that even if the girl ended up not contributing, she would at least follow her crush's orders in the hope of impressing him and not stand in his way. Lastly, she knew that as frustrating as his habits and however harsh his testing might be, their sensei was one of the best and guaranteed to be right on time when it counted. The boys had been a bit skeptical at that, but then they had no idea how well she knew the man, since he was generally long gone or concealed when they came over. 'Which is likely for the best, but still; no faith. They will soon learn…' she thought humorously, then amended 'Well, they will likely never get to see him punctual unless they pass the test tomorrow; it would be just like Kakashi to show up hours too late'.

A fond, if slightly exasperated, smile spread over her lips as her thoughts turned to the copy-nin. She briefly contemplated hunting him down tomorrow and, if necessary, drag him to their meeting place to spare the genin-hopefuls the long wait, but instead resolved to just make sure they utilized their common sense and disregarded his advice about skipping breakfast. Kakashi had not told her this, but she could guess how hard these genin-tests were on him, given that they were bound to call forth memories of his own team. Taking into account that this year's bunch consisted of a stuck-up prodigy, his fan-girl and the goofy Hokage-wannabe – one of them being an Uchiha, while the other was the son and spitting image of his sensei – Aya found it nothing short of miraculous that he had not flat-out refused to take them on. So, if he needed some hours alone in the company of the memories of the past Team 7 to handle facing the new Team 7, then she wouldn't meddle in that. Strictly speaking she shouldn't meddle at all; tomorrows test was for the future Team 7's members and she wasn't supposed to be part of that. She could however offer her support in other ways, like making sure the kids did not pass out from hunger before their sensei arrived…

'Or that said sensei doesn't lie awake the entire night, drowning in the past' she thought, throwing her blankets off.

Kakashi was lying in his bed, willing his brain to give him a break and let him catch some sleep, but sadly he wasn't having much luck. It was the same as every other time he had had a new genin-team to test, only made much worse because of the glaring similarities between these three kids and his deceased teammates, so he had more or less resigned himself to getting through the day after on caffeine. In fact he was considering just giving up on sleeping that night entirely, when suddenly his senses told him he wasn't alone in his apartment anymore and he reflexively gripped the kunai under his pillow. Seconds later he relaxed as his nose identified the intruder as someone that was very welcome, though he wondered why she was there. He got his answer when he felt her settle on the bed beside him and run her hand through his hair, even as she pulled him closer for a long deep goodnight-kiss, before whispering "Sleep". Marveling at how well she knew him to be able to foresee his predicament, he thankfully wrapped his arms around her and closed his eyes to do just that. After all, how could his thoughts drift back to a past where this gorgeous woman was but a child, when her feminine very adult body was pressed against him oh so temptingly and firmly anchoring him to the present.


	20. Chapter 20

Author's note:

Dedicated to Angelus Animi and Flower of Venus because their lovely reviews motivated me into picking up the slack with this story :) I did this incredibly annoying thing where I got an idea for something way down the timeline and just had to write it, so now I have this huge gap that needs to be filled out, though thankfully I know what I want to happen. Oh, and then there's that muse who continuously wacks me my poor head with that harp of hers, demanding that I follow up on all those new ideas for stories - no seriously, I have like 7 ongoing stories, one of them even longer than this one..

Disclaimer: You know the drill.

**Kaze no Uchiha**

"But he said not to eat anything?" Naruto said groggily, having been shaken awake and placed at the bar with a healthy portion breakfast in front of him. Looking up from the small bento she was putting together for their female teammate, Aya asked "Did he now?" Sasuke wasn't looking all that fresh either as he slid onto the place beside the blonde, but he at least understood her meaning and responded "No he didn't; he advised us not to". She could almost hear the cogs slowly starting to turn en their heads, but prodded them along nonetheless by presenting the situation a little differently "So, you have essentially been given a mission of unknown duration and without a clear goal to accomplish other than demonstrating your skills. The only confirmed information you have is when and where it begins, plus that the three of you will have to go up against your elite jounin- level sensei while he evaluates whether you are ready to become part of Konoha's shinobi force or not. Those are the hard facts. Furthermore you were advised that you might throw up if you eat beforehand. Now, are there things we can surmise, either from implied information, our own basic knowledge or observation?"

She was aware that it wasn't very civilian of her to put it like that, but the boys had been around her enough that they had long since stopped being surprised when she stepped outside the persona most of the village saw. And most importantly it worked; both Naruto and Sasuke caught on. Uncharacteristically the Uchiha was quicker to answer "That there will be heavy physical exertion or possibly something traumatizing enough to make us puke involved. The first seems more likely considering our training up until now and that Konoha isn't in any wars, though the latter could be achieved through genjutsu". Of course his rival wasn't far behind and in typical Uzumaki-fashion leapt right to the heart of the matter by asking the first two questions that popped into his head "But what kind of wimp would go hungry on a mission like that for fear of throwing up? Fighting on an empty stomach is stupid and besides; won't we have plenty of time to digest while waiting for Sensei to show up? Iruka-sensei wasn't surprised at all that he was super late yesterday, so it probably normal"

Silence followed as the two Uchiha's looked at him bemusedly, until Aya shook her head to clear it and smiled proudly as she said "Keep thinking logically like this and I won't have to worry even a little about you today. You should probably start getting ready; I have packed some of those boring ration-bars for you in case the test draws out and you can borrow extra weapons from my collection if you want to – yes that includes real tanto and ninjato. In exchange, will you boys give Sakura this bento for me?".

She couldn't help the small laugh that escaped her at seeing the suffering grimace on Sasuke's face as he asked her "Why?", to which she lifted a brow and countered "Can't I just be nice to your future teammate?" The boy wasn't moved though and stubbornly kept looking at her until she rolled her eyes and relented "I don't remember any clan by the name of Haruno, so odds are her parents are civilian and won't have thought as far as you two just did. Even if they did try to make her see sense and eat, they likely won't have succeeded as many young girls suffer under the delusion that dieting will somehow make them more attractive. Now, seeing as I have never heard about anyone beneath tokubetsu jounin-level taking on missions of any rank worth mentioning solo, I am going to go out on a limb here and assume that there is a good reason you were divided into teams of three. Teammates work together and help each other out, right?"

Evidently he couldn't argue with her logic since he then pointedly pushed the bento towards Naruto for him to pick up, but she suspected his reasoning ran more along the lines of a full kunoichi being less of a bother than a hungry one. Not quite what she was aiming for, but he was slowly getting better.

After wishing the boys good luck and seeing them off, the redhead stretched out on her couch, thoughts straying to a certain silver haired jounin. He was still mostly asleep when she slipped out earlier and very reluctant to let her go, which brought a smile to her lips at how cute the feared nin could be. "Well, no rest for the wicked. I should be going too" she said to herself while getting up to change her clothes and get her gear. She and Genma had a training-date in an hour and Aya wanted to do her full morning-routine and limber up before he arrived.

Snaking strong arms around the slim waist of his target, Kakashi nuzzled her neck from behind while asking "You wouldn't happen to have had a hand in my genin being unusually well-fed and -equipped today all things considered, would you?" He really tried to make his expression stern as the fiery haired beauty blinked big blue eyes up at him innocently, but must not have been very successful as she merely pulled down his mask and caught his lips in a quick kiss.

In truth he wasn't entirely sure how he felt about her meddling, other than a bit of fond exasperation. He supposed he should have been cross with her, but from what he had deduced, she hadn't actually given them any answers or instructions, only provided the tools and nudged them into thinking more like shinobi much the same way the boy's parents would have done it had they still been alive. Similarly he couldn't quite figure out his feelings regarding actually having passed a team for the first time ever or how much they reminded him of his own genin-team, though it had been extremely funny shocking the other jounin-senseis with the news.

Any further musings were cut off when Aya turned around completely and put her arms around his neck, leaning on the kitchen counter even as one leg came up to wrap around his and she said "I was planning on using the steam room and taking a nice long soak to loosen up my muscles tonight – you are welcome to join if you want to?". Lifting a brow in incredulousness and amusement at her very obviously deliberate selective hearing and the questioning tone, he responded "Thank you. Rough day?"

His amusement only grew when she looked at him sheepishly and answered "Not exactly. Well, Genma and I might have gotten a tiny bit overzealous in our training, but it certainly didn't help that I never got around to stretching properly afterwards, since Naruto and Sasuke arrived here only a few minutes after me". Shaking his head, he thought to himself 'A tiny bit overzealous, huh? The boys couldn't have gotten here until well past noon…' Having talked to Genma the day before, Kakashi knew they had agreed to meet up already at 8 o'clock, meaning they had been going at it for four hours and before then she had likely been training by herself. Out loud he said "Speaking of the boys, how did they like their presents?" Aya's eyes lit up at the thought and she responded "Oh you should have seen them! I swear I saw little stars appear in Sasuke's eyes and I was almost afraid I would crack a rib when they hugged me after Naruto stopped bouncing off the walls. Of course then they had to try them out straight away and since there is no way I am letting those two go at each other with such sharp blades until they get to know them, I somehow got pulled into the role of opponent instead. In hindsight that probably wasn't such a good idea; they wouldn't stop hounding me about training afterwards, even though I told them they should be taking advantage of having an elite jounin for a sensei for these things". At the last she shot mentioned sensei a pointed look.

"Hooh? But you have done such a wonderful job earning those two hotheads' respect; they actually listen to what you say and I think your little impromptu lessons may actually have given them more in the way of real life applicable skills than the majority of those they attended in the Academy. In fact, maybe you should just take over for me? You would make a much better sensei and could probably successfully make Sakura see sense before reality decides she's been coddled for long enough" he asked, only half joking. Sadly the Aya was not convinced if the eye-roll was anything to go by, but she couldn't hide a small smile when she responded "Flattery will get you nowhere on this, Mister, and you'll do fine anyway. I don't mind going along for moral support or helping out sometimes though, if you really think having little civilian me pitch in will help any".

Now it was Kakashi turn to roll his eyes at her, teasingly replying "If only Konoha had more cute little civilians like you we wouldn't need half the shinobi we do, never mind Academy instructors - fact not flattery. Now, you were saying something about a bath…?"

Actually he had washed before coming over, but Aya's bath was something else entirely compared to his mini shower cubicle and then there was the company… He also knew there was no way he was getting out of telling his version of how today had gone - though thankfully she wouldn't push him on the matter of how he felt about it -, so he might as well be comfortable while he did it, plus he figured she deserved a nice throughout massage for chasing away the ghosts of the past last night and substituting for no less than two sets of parents the day after. Now, if he happened to enjoy giving as much as she did receiving... Well, he didn't think anyone would begrudge him the treat after today.

…apart from those annoying pups panting after his lady, but that really just made it more enjoyable.

Over the following half year's time life settled into a new routine for Aya and the current Team 7, but though school was replaced with D-ranks and team practice, many things remained the same. Among these were Naruto and Sasuke's daily morning workout at Aya's before meeting up with the rest of the team, or usually just Sakura really; Kakashi was still consequently late, though not by as much as he would have been if his lady hadn't made it a habit to drop by the Memorial before heading to her workshop. The silver haired jounin still spent time there every morning he could, but even then it was frankly a small miracle the boys hadn't run into him in the mornings yet with how often he ended up sleeping over.

They would have had to be idiots to not notice that something was going on between their sensei and whatever-it-was-Aya-was-to-them - Naruto still stuck to his Aya-onee-chan, while Sasuke had gradually fallen into calling her Aya-oba-san because that's what she technically was, if not by blood - though, especially since Kakashi visibly perked up whenever she showed up during training. In the beginning they had tried deluding themselves into believing it was the refreshments she brought along that had the jounin in such a good mood, but then Sakura made it all a wasted effort by commenting on how cute a couple the two made and since then it had been impossible to ignore. Shifting tactics they had instead taken to trying to keep one of the two occupied whenever she dropped by - one a whole lot more discretely than the other, but it was the intent that counted -, since no matter what she said, there was just no way their tardy and lazy - even perverted, if what they had heard of his favorite book was true! - sensei who couldn't even make up a believable excuse was good enough for their Aya.

Speaking of Sakura, she had made the mistake of wondering out loud to her teammates - i.e. Sasuke - how their sensei could be so irresponsible so as to allow a civilian onto the training ground the first time Aya came by, which had earned her a scoff and the annoyed reply that in that case Sakura herself shouldn't be there either, because Aya-oba-san was ten times the kunoichi she was, civilian or no. After getting over her shock at hearing her crush utter so many words in one go and in the defense of someone too, the poor girl had then realized this was the woman she owed her not embarrassing herself completely by falling over from hunger during their sensei's test to and went to thank her.

Initially she had also tried to get closer to Sasuke through his obasan, but quickly found that while the red haired Uchiha listened politely enough during the moments she managed to get her alone - and there was far between those despite them both being of the fairer sex, which logically meant they should have had more to talk about - she had a tendency to nimbly change the topic whenever it fell on the wonder that was her nephew. Usually the boys drew her into discussions on weapons, training or even the world outside Konoha though, taking her contributions on the topics bafflingly serious considering she hadn't even gone to the Academy, never mind made genin unlike herself.

That is, baffling until Naruto and Sasuke managed to badger Aya into helping them with their kenjutsu one day after Kakashi had gotten called away and therefore cancelled their ordinary training. The pinkette had mostly tagged along in the hope that her crush would say yes to a date and because she had long wanted to see the Uchiha compound from the inside, but instead of getting a date she learned exactly why he had said what he did that day two months prior, when they ended up sparring in the huge backyard; even two against one and dressed in a ankle-length yukata Aya completely outclassed the boys, without even breaking much of a sweat. That had been a real eye-opener since up until then, Sakura had naively assumed their sensei had merely been humoring his girlfriend when she once overheard him asking her what she thought of their progress.

Afterwards, when her and Naruto were walking back towards their respective homes, the pinkette had asked the blond if he didn't think it even a little odd that a civilian was that good and gotten the cheerful response that while Aya-onee-chan was awesome, she had also handled weapons for most of her life and kept in form by working out every morning; in fact that's where him and Sasuke always went before going to wait for their tardy sensei to show up, so if Sakura wanted to get in some extra training too, he was sure she was also welcome to join.

That had gotten her thinking and by the time she got home, the pinkette had felt like the world's most lousy excuse for a kunoichi; she had often marveled at how long her teammates could keep going during training and wondered how they had the energy they did after doing missions, when they usually sparred to pass the waiting-time, while she - who conserved her energy by merely observing - was beat by the end of the day, but had she ever done anything about it? No, and now she found that neither her being a girl nor her wanting to stay pretty for Sasuke-kun were viable excuses for the huge gap between their endurance and skills in fighting; Aya had looked beautiful whirling around with the two wakizashi she wielded and not the least bit gross from sweating, because unlike herself she was actually in great shape. How could someone like her or even Ino-pig stand a chance with their crush as they were, when a civilian woman like that was the female role-model he saw the most of and would probably compare the girls around him to, along with his mother who had probably been an equally amazing Uchiha?

It took her one week after that, but when she next met her sensei's girlfriend, Sakura had found her resolve and the courage to ask about joining them in the mornings like Naruto had suggested. Aya had been happy to oblige after her boys' teammate had agreed to abide by the following rules: first, fan-girly behavior was banned while on her property and that included ogling Sasuke - second, no hitting Naruto outside spars - third, no giving up halfway through training unless genuinely too tired to continue; not wanting to feel gross afterward was no excuse since there was a perfectly functional shower just inside - and finally fourth, eating proper breakfast was mandatory and a small bowl of cereal or a piece of fruit did not count as that.

Needless to say a certain young Uchiha hadn't been very happy about having one of his few fan-girl-safe zones compromised, but while she obviously couldn't keep up with the others, the pinkette did stick with the rules bar a few slipups and it got easier for her over time as the results of the training started to show in her endurance among other things. Unlike her teammates she didn't really take to any weapons in particular - that she admitted to at least; Aya still thought a steel club or armored gauntlets would fit her splendidly based on the punch she packed when Naruto annoyed her too much and had actually made her a pair of the latter - instead opting to work on improving her taijutsu, precision with thrown weapons and overall physical shape.

Kakashi had teased his fiery haired lady relentlessly about having taken another 'duckling' under her wing when he found out and again suggested a change of sensei for Team 7, but backed off as quick as lightning the moment she sweetly suggested that he take over their morning workout, while she went and got a good chat with her Oikko-kun. There was no way he was going to compromise even the slightest improvement in the one of his students he could relate to the least and knowing Aya had about as much patience for fan-girls as himself, he was doubly grateful that she had decided to give Sakura a chance when she had started making an effort.

The months wore on like that until the boy's eventually got so fed up with D-ranks that they put their feet down - loudly in Naruto's case from what she heard from Iruka - and somehow landed Team 7 a C-rank escort-mission to Wave. Aya herself had been drafted by her Saru-jii-sama to help with the arrangements for the Chunin Exams at the time, so while she was excited that they were travelling outside Konoha for what would be the first time in Naruto and Sakura's case, it was mostly during the mornings that she worried about how their mission was going. The rest of the time she was either keeping busy in her workshop, seeing friends or taking care of the parts of aforementioned arrangements that required a certain diplomatic touch, which essentially translated into formulating a whole lot of letters in a tone befitting whoever the recipient was as she corresponded with both Kage and the other important people entitled to an early notification of the exam. Or rather the people who took care of those peoples' correspondence; Honoohime happened to have had the honor of meeting not only the Fire Daimyo, but also the Raikage and there was no way in hell the current A had written the politely worded rejection of the invitation to send any genin Kumo deemed ready to become chunin. As the replies started ticking in, she also took care of making seat reservations on behalf of those who were certain they would be attending and made sure people who definitely shouldn't be placed near each other weren't.

Aya did rather miss snuggling up to Kakashi in the evenings and having him drop by at random times, but just like the other times he had been gone on missions it meant she saw even more of her friends. First and foremost that meant Genma and Iruka, but Anko, Raido, Gai, Asuma, Izumo and Kotetsu also dragged her out a couple of times, though she honestly wasn't sure if she should run off or smile when Konoha's Sublime Green Beast of Prey showed up on her doorstep, standing up-side-down because he had decided walking on his hands was youthful that day. Sora and Tsubasa kept her company too, though she had to be careful that a passing ANBU or the like didn't spot the latter; two meter tall falcons weren't exactly native to Konoha and Aya didn't much fancy trying to explain that one without revealing Kurohyou.

All in all time passed by fairly fast for her and finally Team 7 returned victorious from their first C-rank.

…that had somehow turned into an A-rank, where they faced not only the chunin-level nuke-nin known as the Demon Brothers, but also Momochi Zabuza who just so happened to have been one of Kirigakure's famed Seven Swordsmen, member of their ANBU and nicknamed Demon of the Hidden Mist for an extremely good reason, plus his apprentice Haku, who was an insanely fast ice-user and good enough to easily pass for a hunter-nin. All this because the richest man in the world - a power-hungry shipping magnate named Gatou who had a hand in just about anything illegal - had decided he wanted Wave for himself and the client Team 7 had been guarding turned out to be the driving force behind building the bridge that would break Gatou's control of the land.

Aya really wasn't sure what to feel when they told her, other than insanely proud that they had somehow managed to survive against those odds of course; getting a delayed panic-attack seemed kind of silly when they were sitting right there in front of her with all limbs accounted for and no serious wounds. Similarly it was great that they had all mastered the tree-walking exercise and the weapons she had made for them had been put to good use protecting their and the client's lives - she rather suspected Sakura had gotten a little fond of her gauntlets actually - but the circumstances were a far cry from anything genin should ever have gotten mixed up in. Hell, if they hadn't had an elite jounin and former ANBU like Kakashi with them they likely wouldn't have made it and even then they had had to risk their lives to save their sensei at one point.

Kakashi on his part was just grateful that the fiery haired beauty didn't immediately kick his ass for almost getting himself killed and opting to not send for her afterwards when he knew who they were facing; he had briefly contemplated it during the week both him and Zabuza had spent recovering, knowing that she would have no issues at all seeing through the mist or simply dispersing it, but had felt confident that they could handle the upcoming fight and frankly the very thought of his lady going up against someone like Zabuza still had chills running down his spine no matter how capable he knew her to be. In hindsight her wind-fire combination jutsu probably could have wiped the floor with Haku's ice though, meaning Naruto would have been spared the experience of nearly losing himself in the Kyubi's power in his rage at his rival-brother's perceived death and Sakura from experiencing the malicious feel of the demon's chakra. Who knew, maybe the two nuke-nin that had turned out not to be so bad after all would even have backed down with the arrival of another jounin-level opponent and settled for plundering their back-stabbing employer instead?

Still, he didn't regret his decision since they had all made it through okay and his students were stronger for it, each having gotten a serious reality-check and realized their own mortality. Other's too, both enemy and friend, which was an altogether different cup of tea than merely knowing about the ever-present risk of death intellectually. They had also proven they could function as a real team when shit hit the fan so to speak, and not just the two boys either, though they obviously knew each other's styles the best from all their sparring and hence covered for each other almost without conscious thought. It hadn't been enough against an opponent like Haku with his ice mirror-technique and hail of precisely aimed senbon, but they were getting there. He could readily admit to nearly having gotten a heart attack back when Sakura had moved to block the Kubikiribōchō of one of Zabuza's mizu bunshin, but as it turned out his student had known what she was doing, having figured out that chakra could be flowed through the black, elbow-length armored gauntlets Aya had made for her to strengthen them and the move had surprised the bunshin enough that the pinkette had been able to get in a good swipe, thus dispelling it.

Yes, things were definitely looking up for Team 7, continued fan-girly obsession aside. But with that being said he was more than ready to go back to relaxing - for him - D-ranks for the next while and definitely to spend some quality time with someone he had been missing while gone. Preferably alone, without a bunch of preteens of which two-thirds were jealously guarding the very person he wanted to get alone.

'This is going to be so much more difficult in a few years, but until then…' the silver haired jounin mused to himself even as he acted. The last thing he heard before being halfway across the village with his precious and very amused cargo was two outraged squawks '…you've got to love the Shunshin no jutsu'.


End file.
